


Changes

by elainefr



Category: Daria (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 16:42:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 34
Words: 38,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7275883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elainefr/pseuds/elainefr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is set somewhere in the later part of Daria's college years. She has made some choices in her life. Enter Trent, trying to become more. They both find out that in life, whether we want it or not, there will always be changes...... I do not own, nor do I make any money from Daria or any of these characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You......

Chapter 1  
"Why didn't you tell me?" There was no anger in his voice, in fact, she couldn't tell what he was feeling and that troubled her. There was a time when she could read him over the phone and he could do the same with her.  
"I didn't want you to know," she stated honestly. She hated that he wasn't facing her.  
"Because you were ashamed….." he said with a calm that was contrary to all that he was feeling.  
He turned away from the winters view from the window of her apartment to face her standing figure once again. When he'd come to visit her, this was the last thing that he'd expected to happen. He looked at her now. She was no longer the shy introvert that he'd the pleasure of getting to know as she grew into her own sense of self and womanhood. He had watched her grow and that had inspired him to change some of his slacker ways. Seeing how his sister and her challenged one another, in their own sarcastic ways, to do better and be better made him look at himself and start to make some actual decisions regarding life instead of letting things come as they may. He had found with a bit of trial and error that he had passions that helped to contribute towards making his love of music better. Cooking had become a wonderful substitute for getting completely hammered. While the alcohol would sometimes allow him some arguably passable lyrics to spew forth, cooking let his mind focus on other things so that when the muse hit, it was with full force and most of the times, new and exciting things.  
"I wasn't-, I am not ashamed. I wouldn't have done it if I were ashamed." She stood stock still with a defiant raised chin. They'd always been straight with one another and she was determined that this wouldn't be any different. "I did what I did because I wanted the money quick and easy. It's not like I want to do it for the rest of my life or anything."  
"It was easy for you to have strangers ogling you while you were naked?" he asked with a raised brow, his anger slightly brimming below the surface.  
"It's a job okay?" she said angrily.  
"No! IT'S NOT OKAY!" he shot back angrily. "I know it's your body and all of that crap, but I think that I had a right to know what was going on.  
"Why?!" she shot back just as heatedly. "Like you said, it's my body and I decide what I do and whom I do it for."  
All the while that they had been shouting they'd moved closer and closer to one another, until they were inches apart. She still only came to his shoulder and under other circumstances she would have found these kinds of contact almost blush worthy, but right now she was just too angry. He grabbed her by the forearms unsure of whether he wanted to shake some sense into her or kiss her until they both forgot what they were fighting about. His grip was firm, but not brutal and she found herself wanting to curl up and forget about this whole mess, but in the back of her mind she knew that they had to work through this thing one way or another.  
"Why?" He didn't have a definitive answer for that. He knew that they'd gotten closer and that there were feelings there between them- there had always been that, but they had never made any formal statements. Hell, he hadn't thought that they'd needed one. "We never needed to say things before." He defended himself.  
"Maybe we should have," she conceded letting her anger ease slightly, though they both still held the fire in their eyes.  
"What would you have said?" his voice was husky and filled with emotion.  
"What would you have said?"  
He let his hands slide down her arms so that he now held her hands. They looked at one another both trying to gage the others thoughts.  
"I should have made a move or something." He spoke first. "Should have let you know how I felt, but I thought….."  
"You thought that I knew, just like I thought that you knew." She took a strengthening breath before continuing. "I've had a thing for you- a crush since I first met you. Then we became friends and it became so very much more. For the longest time I was so afraid of slipping up and saying something that would mess that up. I didn't want to lose the only other friend besides your sister that I had, so I tried to push those feelings aside." She'd managed, barely, to keep eye contact with him until she was finished.  
He squeezed her hands gently and she felt rather than saw the smile mixed in so many things that she saw in his eyes.  
"I think a part of me knew, but I guess I figured that someone like you being so smart and going places in life, would never really want someone like me for real, so I just chalked it up to a teenage crush. Then we became friends and the closer we became, the more my respect for you grew. You were always a force to be reckoned with, I've seen the way that you could rip apart someone with your words but you never made me feel stupid when we talked. I really appreciated how patient you were with me sometimes."  
"I think that I was just grateful to be in your presence most of the time, but I never thought of you as stupid."  
"I remember when I found out about you and Tom. That's when I knew that it wasn’t just respect or even admiration that I felt for you. I was angry for my sister, but I felt betrayed by you."  
And there it was, she thought, the awful, bitter truth. He had felt betrayed by her once and now again after last night.  
"I'm not saying this to make you feel bad," he wanted to erase the hurt in her eyes, but he had to be honest as well. "I got over all of that, though because the thought of not having you in my life was worse than having you in my life with him. I tried keeping to myself as much as I could back then, I just wanted to be near you, in case you needed me or something. I was so proud of you and Janey when you graduated and went to college. Part of me felt like I grew with you, but at first I had no options, but then you guys would come home some times and I lived for those times at first. I remember one time over the summer you guys had come home for the weekend on your way to go to Paris with that studies abroad trip that Janey had won; I was proud, but envious too. That was when I began to challenge myself to do more. You guys really made me want to do more. You made me want to be the kind of man that you could actually see yourself with."  
"You have always been such a huge part of my life that I couldn't imagine my life without you or Jane. I hate to think what kind of person I would be without you two. Jane has helped me come to know myself on my own terms. She has also made it possible for me to be more comfortable with myself with…..men too. I didn't think that she and I would ever get past what I did, but we did and Lord help us we became even closer. She encouraged me to not close myself up as I tended to. I could see her point; I mean the only two guys that I had ever expressed interest in were her brother and her boyfriend. I think she believed that the reason that Tom and I got together was in large part because I hadn't had any experience with any other males before that and who knows, maybe she's right. I just wish that I had handled things much differently…..for everyone's sake. I remember coming to see you on breaks and during the summers and every time we did, there was some nagging part of me that let my mind linger on a what if scenario with you, but you were building your life so beautifully, I was so proud of how you were handling things on your own terms, and I didn't want to disrupt that. Also, by that time you and I had formed a friendship that I really cherished. I still do." She finished quietly forcing her eyes to stay locked with his.  
"When did you start working there?" his voice was steady and she wasn't able to tell if he was angry or hurt, but guessed it was a bit of both.  
"A few months ago."  
"What all do you do there?" He had to know, no matter what, he thought. That way he wouldn't be blindsided.  
"Just what you saw, I don't dance on the stage or anything like that. I dance in that box and I go home." She made to pull away, but he wouldn't let her.  
"Why?"  
"Well at first it was to make some extra cash for a new laptop and my friend Barry was just opening the place and wanted a variety of tastes. He wanted to keep it more along the lines of a gentleman's club, really upscale. He never asked me to do anything that I was uncomfortable with and he said that I was a good draw for the customers," she finished proudly.  
"So you were okay with taking off your clothes for strangers?" he asked with that hereditary raised brow that she had grown to know so well over the years.  
"I didn't really think of who was on the other side of the glass."  
"What did you think about?"  
"You….."


	2. Baring it all

"You got one more private show in room six," Barry said looking down at his friend that looked oddly alluring with heels on her normally 5'3" frame. She was a quiet one, he thought looking at her. Her unwillingness to fully believe in her attractiveness only added to it. He was quite fortunate that she had agreed to come and work for him. She had added class to his place and to the other girls' way of thinking, otherwise it might have turned into just another strip club. It had actually been her who had talked to the girls about how they shouldn't lose their principles and remember why they were there in the first place. Most needed the money for their kids and school and others just liked the idea of show off what nature gave them. Either way she helped to ease everyone into a comfortable place of conduct for business and Barry was eternally grateful. He had all kinds of upscale business clientele that came in just for the private viewings. She had developed a number that was so sexy when she did it, that she had acquired several regulars that came specifically to see her and for the money that he charged them, they were getting a tantalizing treat. She didn't show a lot, but the way she unveiled the stuff that she did show and the lingerie, well any man would be weak. Maybe it was the way she lost herself in that little erotic dance, he thought. "It's a 'special' request." He stated with a chuckle.  
"Okay, let me change right quick," she said cinching her robe and heading to the changing room that she shared with three other girls. She went and found what she was looking for. It was one of her more expensive and provocative lace numbers that she used for the 'special requests'. Special requests meant clients with deep pockets and that meant an extra hundred bucks just for that show. She headed to her back entrance with the large fans that she used. For these performances she always felt that in order to give them what they were paying for, she had to sell it, and so she just pretended that she was dancing for him. It was all about fantasy anyway, she thought as she took center stage.  
"Why pay all this money when we could just watch the girls on stage?"  
"Come on Trent it'll be fun and this girl, believe me, she's worth every cent and then some."  
"It's your dime." Trent said with a shrug and entered the room where the owner held the door for him.  
"Just sit back and enjoy yourself. I'll catch up to you afterwards at the bar."  
He called behind Trent.  
Trent sat back against the plush leather sofa. He didn't see what the big deal was, he'd been to strip clubs before, granted this one was a lot nicer than any of the others that he'd been in but it all amounted to the same thing to him. It had been odd to be in town to visit and to run into one of the last people that he'd expected to see. The music start slow and he immediately recognized it as the instrumental to The Weeknd's The Knowing. The room was up lit with a softened spotlight on a chair in the center. The woman sat with her back to him and as the music progressed she extended an extremely high heeled leg and ran a hand down it and back up again as though she didn't know that he were there. The cascade of her long brown hair was forced to be drug up her leg while exposing the pale flesh of her neck. He wasn't aware that he had sat up straighter and leaned in slightly. She stood slowly and raised large black feathered fans to cover her body. She kept her head strategically turned away from him while removing one fan and exposing a barely clad body part and replacing it with the other fan. He could see what the fuss was about. Her controlled method of exposing just enough to tease was captivating to say the least. She danced steadily gyrating to the provocative music and slowly laid one fan on the floor in time to the music. She played sexy peek-a-boo with the other and Trent could swear that she was dancing for him. The song was drawing to a close and she let the fan drop to the floor and stood so that he could glimpse the black lace bra and matching panty that she wore before the curtain began to slowly fall. She turned away and unbuttoned the bra letting it fall to the floor so that he only caught a glimpse of her naked back and panty clad bottom as she left the now darkened stage. She hurried into the robe that she kept off stage and cinched it tightly before retrieving her bra and fans and making her way back to her dressing room.  
"Another private show?" Marie, one of the girls that she shared a room with asked unnecessarily. "Damn, girl make that paper."  
She smiled modestly at her friends' exuberance. Marie was gorgeous with waist length black hair, exotic green eyes, and a body built to be in a bikini as she put it. She was determined to be a pinup girl. She liked being pretty and didn't mind saying so, but she didn't do it to make others feel bad, that's why she was so likeable. She was just very sure of herself.  
"Well, I am off for the evening and in need of a shower."  
"I'll catch you later then." Marie continued to put on her make up after giving her friend a quick wave goodbye.  
"Night, Bruce," she said to the body guard at the door as she exited.  
"Night."  
She turned opened her car and was about to get in when she heard a voice.  
"Hey Daria."  
She turned with a rising sense of dread pouring over her. There he stood in wash of light spilling from the parking lot lighting. It took her several seconds before she could say anything.  
Hey Trent."


	3. That Summer

“Come on Trent, get the lead out,” Jane yelled from the car.  
Her brother rounded the corner from the back of the house at his usual laid back state, though his face read of a hurriedness that his body couldn’t seem to emulate.  
“It’s supposed to be a relaxing day at the beach, what’s the rush?” Daria commented from the backseat where she sat reclining.  
Jane regarded her with an amused semi sour look through the rearview mirror before speaking.  
“I am anxious to get this day of ‘fun’ underway. I mean how often does one get to drag you to the beach?”  
“Mmm….you do have a point.”  
“A point about what?” Trent said getting in the car.  
“Daria is just anxious to show off her new bikini and lip gloss today is all,” Jane said with a smirk aimed at her friend through the rearview mirror again.  
“I figured minimal clothing would be necessary for when I scalp you,” Daria quipped around a scowl.  
Trent took in their sparring with an inward smile. He had missed this, he had missed them. When Jane had told him that they would be back in town for most of the summer, he hadn’t known what to expect, but it seems the time away had not made them strangers as he had feared. They were both maturing into the sophisticated young women that he knew that they would be. Truth be told, he hadn’t been too sure how well Jane would do in school, academics weren’t her strong suit, but that was only because she wanted to concentrate on her art. She was doing well in school and in areas that weren’t only art, and that gave her confidence that he could hear in her voice when they spoke on the phone and see in her face whenever they saw each other . Daria had flourished academically as he knew she would, but more than that, she had become more comfortable around guys- around him. He knew that his sisters’ boldness was in large part to thank for that. Daria had actually participated in conversations with him and the band without being goaded into it by Jane or using that razor sharp tongue to cut the people down as a defense. Her smiles were still a rare occasion, but when she did smile, it was a treat like no other for him. They still had their own ‘special’ talks that had brought them closer and he had gotten into the habit of calling her at least once a week as well as private chatting online. Heck, he was making a few changes in his own life. He had even taken a cooking class and liked it.  
“Aw Janey, I thought you were in a rush.” Trent reclined in the seat to letting it back so that he was practically lying down.  
Jane glanced at him and then Daria again and said nothing as they sped off to pick up Jesse on the way.

At the beach…..  
“Come on Daria, you can’t just sit there and read at the beach. You could do that at home.” Jane stood over her friends reclining form.  
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I just wanted to finish this chapter before immersing myself in this day of fun.” She placed the book back into her beach bag that was on the towel beneath the huge umbrella where she sat. “Okay, I’m ready.”  
“Where’s your suit?” Jane asked around an amused smile.  
Daria recognized the dare, but had been expecting it. She stepped out of her shorts and pulled the large tee shirt over her head, revealing a simple black one piece swimsuit. It was simple, but flattering.  
“Oooh, la la,” Jane said in a low voice, “I know someone that will be pleased.” She turned and went back over to where Trent and Jesse were. As expected, Jane and Jesse headed for the water while Trent came towards her.  
“Hey Daria.”  
“Hey, Trent. Jane didn’t have to send you to fetch me or anything,” Daria said brushing off sand from her leg that wasn’t really there. “You don’t have to always come and get me just ‘cause Jane says so.”  
“Whoa, what’s with the anger vibe?” Trent’s eyes were the only sign that recognized her change in mood.  
“I just…..” at a sudden loss for words around him, a feeling that she thought that she had outgrown, she turned away lost in embarrassment.  
“Hey, what is it?” Trent leaned in closely and turned her back to face him. He threw an arm around her shoulders and they began to walk. After a while, he felt her relax a bit.  
“Your sister can be a bit much sometimes.” Daria stated quietly.  
“Mmm…..” He knew what she meant, but felt that she needed to work it out herself.  
“I know that she likes to just…..but I don’t.” She chanced a look at him and saw that his face held the same relaxed expression that comforted her so much. “I like to just do things my way and at my pace. I think that she forgets that sometimes.” She fell quiet then, waiting for his commentary.  
“Hey Daria?”  
“Yeah Trent?”  
“We’re at a beach.”  
She smiled. His knack for stating the obvious could always turn things around for her.  
“Today is about fun…..” she barely had the words out before she felt him swoop her up and carried her running to the water to join the others.  
They splashed one another and the other guys joined in after a while. It was just what they had all needed. Daria had even managed to loosen and even openly joked with Max when Jesse had dumped a bucket of sand on him. Max had splashed her and she had used Trent as a shield, which meant he got the bucket of sand meant for her. Jane had snuck up behind Jesse and got him and both of the girls had proceeded to race back to where the sandcastle that Jane had built and their stuff was at.  
“You guys are not getting off that easy,” Max proclaimed with affirmatives from the rest of them.  
“You can’t do anything now, we made it to base,” Jane declared and stamped her foot.  
“Says who?” Jesse challenged.  
“Says anyone who has ever been to the beach to frolic,” she said with an air of authority on the subject.  
Daria waited to see if they were buying what Daria knew to be a load of crap coming from Jane.  
“Frolic?” Jesse crossed his arms over his muscular chest. “I’ll show you frolic,” he made to grab for her but Jane took off and from there the chase around the beach was on. Max and Nick had started talking to a couple of girls that were a few feet over from them, so that left Trent looking at Daria. She was standing there looking at him and seemed somewhat unsure of what to say or do.  
“Sorry about the sand. I didn’t mean for it to get you. I just didn’t want it to get me,” she said somewhat sheepishly.  
“You know,” he said moving closer as he spoke, “it was worth it to see you having a good time out there.”  
“Thanks.”  
“But I still must have my revenge,” he scooped her up before she had a chance to yelp.  
“Oh, that’s cold!” Daria yelped playfully. She couldn’t believe that he had dumped her back in the water. She tried to hit at him but only managed to splash herself.  
“Careful or you’ll fall,” Trent said laughing at her flailing about.  
“I’ll get you for this Trent,” she declared trying unsuccessfully to smooth her hair back.  
“Here let me help.” He wound his fingers through her hair, using his fingers as a comb and swooping it towards the back. “See, all better.” His hand still caressed the back of head. “I had to or the guys would never let me hear the end of it.”  
She could see his lips moving, but his words just floated around. He was rather mesmerizing with the water glistening off the slim build of his body.  
Cool it, you are most definitely not that same high school girl with a crush anymore, she admonished herself. Pay attention and act normal.  
“Mm….”  
“Let’s walk for a minute,” Trent suggested with his hand still at the nape of her neck where he had let it rest when he had gotten done helping her with her hair. They turned and fell in a slow step with one another walking along the edge of the beach. There were no words and Daria was acutely aware that he had not removed his hand and was now making a slight circular motion with the pad of his thumb on the back of her neck where her hairline and neck met. Trent had not removed his hand intentionally. It was a rare thing when she allowed anyone that kind of proximity and he liked it. He had found himself wanting to spend more and more time with her lately, but figuring out the best way was completely stumping him. So when Jane had suggested a day of fun at the beach with the gang, he had jumped at it. They found themselves standing in a private part of the beach looking at each other. She went willingly when she felt the hand in her hair pulling her slightly forward. Their kiss was soft, gentle, and felt like a promise of more to come. They didn’t pull away when the kiss ended; instead they stood still face to face looking at each other. She lightly traced his cheekbone trying to memorize the feel of his skin and the way he was looking at her in this moment. He still had the one hand in her hair and the other had wound its way around her waist to bring her closer and slightly up at an angle. Neither wanted to move, so they didn’t until Nick and Max’s voices calling them broke them from the momentary sanctuary that they’d found with one another.


	4. Presently......

She didn’t know how long they had stood there looking at one another after she had made her little slip about thinking of him while she was working. She had retreated to the kitchen under the premise of making some coffee. She worked mechanically knowing what to do, but keenly aware that she had left a conversation that needed to be had in the other room. Trent wanted answers and though she didn’t technically have to give them to him, she felt as though it was past time that they hashed through some things. They had never even addressed the kiss that they had shared two summers ago. For all she knew he’d forgotten about it or dismissed it as a summer thing. They had, from her perspective, grown so close since then. Their talks could be about anything and she felt like she could be herself around him more and more, but what if it had all been in her head, she thought. She liked making up stories and this was a very common one, she had turned a simple summer kiss into a full blown relationship. If that was the case, then why would he be reacting so strongly to her job?  
Well I’m sure he isn’t worried about me corrupting Jane, she thought to herself with a smirk.  
“What’s so funny?”  
Trent’s voice made her jump slightly. She hadn’t seen him come in. He came to stand before her and gently took the cups that she held from her and placed them on the table.  
“Just tell me…..are you happy?”  
His voice was quiet and in the face of such genuine concern, she felt taken aback.  
“I do okay.” The statement was true enough. She did what she felt was necessary to get by. He was looking at her, patiently waiting for more. She licked her lips before continuing. “School is really good, I am doing well in my classes and I even enjoy interacting with some of my classmates, so all in all I think that I am fine.” She concluded looking at him.  
She didn’t say that she was happy, he noted.  
“About what you said in there…..about what you think about when you’re…..” he found it somewhat amusing that his mentioning it would cause her to blush.  
“Yeah, about that, I already told you about my little crush on you way back when, so I use that as my inspiration to feel…..” she took a step back and sat at the table.  
“Feel what…..sexy?” Trent was confused by the distant look in her eyes.  
“I suppose, but mainly, just….. to feel.” She drank some of the coffee, welcoming its familiar warmth. She gestured for him to sit and once he did, she continued. “Being close to people has never been my thing. It’s not something that comes naturally to me like most people. Don’t get me wrong, I like having my own space and privacy, but contrary to popular belief, I am not opposed to having…..something with someone.” She spoke in a clipped, begrudging tone, as though putting her feelings into actual words out loud made it painful. She chanced a glance at him and found him in what she would describe as contemplative silence.  
“How did you and this Barry meet?”  
“He was in my free writing class. We worked on a project together and found that after the project was done, we wanted to remain friends. The Burlesque club was a dream of his since he found his dad’s Penthouse magazines. He is a pretty smart guy, and I looked over the business proposal before he presented it to his dad and it was solid. He has been doing quite well and none of the women working there feel used. It’s their choice and there is never any pressure to do anything on the side. I think that this is the best scenario that I can think of anyway, of sex being sold in the right way.” She noted the shift in his chair so that he was now reclining away from her. “He and I are friends,” she stated firmly, hoping that he would understand.  
“So you don’t do this regularly?”  
“No…..” her heart felt somewhat heavy because there was so much hope in that question. “But if I did……would that make a difference?”  
He scratched the back of his head in much the same way that he did when he was trying to work out the kinks in a lyric. He was in a bit of a box, because no matter what he said, he felt like it would be the wrong thing.  
“I’d be lying if I said that your being there didn’t bother me,” he could tell by the way she had repositioned herself that she was preparing for the worst. “It’s just that, it’s you and I can’t see you doing…..anything like that,” he finished lamely.  
She looked at him hard for a few moments before speaking.  
“I beg to differ with that statement, since that’s exactly what you did.”  
Her sarcastic quip held no humor.  
“You know what I mean,” he tried to explain.  
“I-“ she started, but a sudden realization seemed to hit her and she closed her mouth abruptly, stood, and took her cup to the sink and started to wash it out…..thoroughly.  
“I just meant that you’re so smart and I never thought that you would do…..that line of work. I guess I figured that you would do your writing in one way or another.”  
He can’t see you doing that line of work because he can’t see you as a Sexual person, she thought. She was glad that her back was to him so that he couldn’t see her face. Get it together Morgendorffer, she admonished herself, before turning back to him.  
“I still write and go to school, I even work part time, and yes I work at a Burlesque Establishment sometimes. My ambitions are still there, I’ve just incorporated some new things into my life.” Daria busied herself cleaning the counter tops and whatever else was near her to avoid looking him in the eye. “So are you still coming up with new things to cook?” She shifted the conversation. She had been prepared for him to be surprised, shocked even, but she hadn’t counted on him rejecting her.  
What happened? Trent thought watching her. We were talking things out and all of a sudden she’s talking about that cooking class that I took. He knew that Daria liked to take her time to do things and he wanted to make sure that she knew that he would always respect her.  
“Yeah, I’ve been trying some new things,” as he spoke he could feel the rift between them widening. He felt as though she were just going through the motions of being polite. He had actually felt closer to her on their last phone conversation, more than he did right now sitting in the same room with her.  
They made only the barest amount of small talk, before she excused herself for bed, feigning tiredness. Once he’d left, she allowed the weight of the evening to catch up to her. Long after she’d showered and laid down for bed, her thoughts still plagued her.  
It had all been in my head, she thought. For someone that’s supposed to be so smart, you sure are stupid.

“Janey, call me when you get this,” Trent left the message on his sisters cell phone once he’d gotten back to his hotel room.  
Janey, why the hell didn’t you at least warn me?  
Trent grabbed a shower and flopped back on the bed. This was not how it was supposed to be. He had planned on surprising Daria and spending some time together, just the two of them. Things had shifted between them tonight and though she hadn’t said it, he knew that it had shifted for the worse. Tomorrow, he thought, he would see her tomorrow and fix everything.


	5. Later that night......

“Hello.”  
“Hey dad…..” Daria held the phone unsure if she wanted to proceed on what she was now viewing as a suicide mission. “What’s going on?”  
“I’m making my world famous chili. How are you doing in school kiddo?” Jake’s bright and cheery voice warmed at hearing his daughter on the phone.  
“School’s fine dad….I just wanted to check in with you.” She cleared her throat and gave herself a mental shake. “Are you at least trying to eat how the doctor told you to sometimes?”  
“I may have taken liberties with some things, but I do okay.”  
His chuckle warmed her from a distance and she smiled inwardly that something as ordinary as this conversation could make her feel better after the emotional beating that she had felt that she’d taken last night.  
“So how does this ‘world famous chili’ fit into that regiment or is it one of your liberties?”  
“Well, it has vegetables in it,” he defended lamely. “Honey, are you okay?”  
“Yeah, sure I am. I should be going though. I have to work soon,” she lied.  
“Are you-“  
“Tell mom I said Hi. I’ll talk to you later dad, bye.”  
“Honey?” He stopped her from hanging up the phone and she put it back to her ear.   
“Yeah, dad?”  
“We- I miss you sweetie, bye.”   
She hung up the phone and slumped back in the bed against the pillows.  
What the hell is wrong with me? She thought angry with herself. In the course of one evening and a conversation with Trent, you go from independent and empowered female to a quivering cliché of needing a man’s approval. Get it together and gain some control over this.  
Ignoring the flashing red light from the answering machine, she picked up her notebook from her nightstand and started to write. She wrote well into the night, until she allowed sleep to claim her.   
I miss you too dad and why the hell is he making chili this late? She thought as she drifted off.


	6. Reassurances from an old friend......

Daria sat in the booth of the café waiting for her guest. This whole Trent- situation was getting to her and she needed to have it settled in her mind. It was a bit of a blow to her ego she admitted to herself.   
Did I really construct an entire relationship from a simple kiss that happened so long ago? Of course you did, this latest mess is proof of that. That kiss that had left such a profound effect on you did the same for him, but in the opposite way. It must have just confirmed that he could only think of you as a friend. But the talks, they were real and we became close. Just not in the way that you wanted. Even if he hadn’t thought of her like that before, he had seen her show, why didn’t he see her differently now?  
She sipped at her tea and tried to still the thoughts that flew threw her head. There was a part of her that she thought that she had conquered. This whole thing had messed with that. She thought that she had come to terms with the part of her that had been insecure about her sexuality, but apparently there was still something that she hadn’t dealt with. Dealing with this, she felt, meant looking back to where she felt it had started…..

Freshman Year at Raft…..  
“Have you given any thought to the direction that our paper should take?” Daria asked her classmate once he had taken a seat across from her in the booth of the campus pizza place.   
“Maybe a story told through the eyes of a former outcast that has found her niche in college.” He took a bite out of the large slice of pizza and watched for a reaction, but of course there was none.  
She gave him a once over and it did not escape her viewing that he had put on a few pounds of muscle, but not enough to be called a meat head or anything like that. He had let his hair grow out so that it was in a stylish thrown back manner that gave him a look of being well read, without being a snob – which she appreciated. The pairing was actually his idea. The teacher had told them to find someone in class to pair up with and come up with a short story. It was to give them a feel for working in a collaborative setting in the working world.  
“Mm…reliving the outcast days at Lawndale High so that I can once again become an outcast here, no thank you.” She said quite succinctly before eating her slice.  
“Ah come on, it wasn’t so bad.” He said between mouthfuls.  
“Not for you, you got accepted by the football team and from there, you moved on to bigger and better things,” she deadpanned.  
“You don’t believe that do you? That I just went on to…..better things?” He looked at her now with her hair even longer than he remembered, minus the bangs. Her lovely face was framed quite nicely and the green sweater that she had paired with some dark washed denim only showed off the curves that she had, in the best of ways.   
She shrugged and kept eating.  
He felt compelled to defend himself for some reason.  
“I was the new kid at a new school with a bunch of new people and I wanted to know everyone, but I was glad that I got to know you first.” He hoped that she knew that he meant it. She had been really nice to him and he never forgot that.  
She wiped her mouth and took a sip of her tea.   
“I’m glad that I met you too,” she admitted after a slight hesitation.  
They had continued to have a genuine friendship from then on. They had gone on dates that both had enjoyed. For his part, he enjoyed her sarcastic observations and for her part she enjoyed that he seemed to still hold on to some of that innocence that he had when they’d met those years ago in high school. They found that they enjoyed talking to one another. Daria had been happier than she had been in a very long time and Jane had noticed it as well. When Jane had inquired as to what was with the change, Daria had, only after the tiniest of prodding, shyly mentioned the rekindling of an acquaintance with an old friend. Jane had been happy for her friend and silently relieved. She loved Daria like a sister and she had seen how dismissive Daria could be of any guy that even tried to approach her. She hadn’t even dated anyone since their mutual ex and that had concerned Jane, so seeing this relationship unfold was nice. Jane had also noted that this relationship didn’t radiate from her, since it was not her boyfriend or brother. Daria was growing, she thought feeling a bit of pride for her friend.   
“Doug and I are going to see a new exhibit Saturday. You think that you guys may want to come with?” Jane had asked her one afternoon when they were having lunch between classes.  
“Um, we have plans.”   
Daria had avoided her friend’s eyes and Jane knew that something must be up.  
“Do tell?” Jane inquired.  
“If you must know, he’s making us dinner, at his place.”   
“You can have dinner any- Oh,” she said mid-sentence as she just realized the emphasis Daria had place on the last part of the statement. “Wow. You guys are getting serious huh?”  
Daria fidgeted before answering.  
“We’re good. I enjoy his company and we don’t want to kill each other.”  
“Well that’s always a bonus. Seriously though, are you….prepared for…..everything?”  
“I have spoken with my doctor and taken all of the necessary precautions so I am all good.” Daria answered in a voice that was a lot calmer than she actually felt.  
“Okay, well cool,” Jane was really happy for her friend, but surprised at the same time. Things had progressed a lot more than she had thought, but more power to her. She needed to have some fun and just because Daria and Trent couldn’t get their feelings for one another together, didn’t mean that she couldn’t be happy with someone. “So Saturday is the big day huh?”  
Daria shrugged, but Jane could see the rose of blush on her cheeks around the cup of coffee that she was now drinking.  
“Can I ask you something about it?”  
“I would be honored to impart my wisdom upon thee my child.” Jane sat up straighter and took on the pose of a Buddha sculpture that she’d seen in her book. Daria rolled her eyes before speaking.  
“What was your first time like?” She wanted to know for practical reasons like what to expect, but hearing about Jane and Tom romantically reminded Daria of a time that though she had been quite fond of Tom, she had not been as loyal a friend to Jane as she thought that she was.  
“It was surprisingly sweet. I remember when I went to him that first time that I wanted to, I was so angry, and that all I wanted was to forget. He listened to me vent, and then he calmed me down and let me bawl my eyes out all night. That was when I saw him as something more than some cute guy. So when we finally had our actual first time, he was quite romantic about it with the candles and everything. It was very special.”  
“So you don’t regret it?”  
“No and even though we moved past it, he and I will always be friends.”  
“I didn’t know that you and Tom were in contact like that.”  
“Tom? No, no my dear. I was talking about Jesse.”  
“Jesse? Oh, I thought…..”  
“I see what you thought, but no. Tom and I never knew each other intimately. I did think that maybe you two had…..”   
“Nope, it just didn’t feel right.” Daria admitted. She hadn’t wanted to bring Tom into this, but he was a common denominator between them.   
“Well that would be one reason not give in,” Jane wiggled her brows suggestively, to which Daria pursed her lips. “Seriously though, I think that it’s great that you two have gotten close.”  
Daria was glad that she and Jane had retained their friendship and especially this kind of candor. There weren’t many people that she felt this open with and Jane had a way of making everything that normally worried her, seem manageable. They had continued their lunch and both had left feeling grateful to have the other in their lives.

Presently…..  
“So, to what do I owe the pleasure of being summoned by you?” the young man asked Daria once he’d sat and given his order.  
“I wanted to ask you something about before, about us before.” She blurted before she lost her nerve.  
He seemed amused by this slightly nervous side of her. She was normally so together in class and around even the most intimidating professors.  
“Okay….” He urged her to continue.  
“Was I- Did I- Were you attracted to me?” She finished and kept her eyes on his face so that she could gage his response.  
He almost spit out his tea. That had been the last thing that he had expected her to ask him. “I would think that there was no question about that. We were both in the same relationship, weren’t we? Unless I should be concerned about something that I am not aware of on behalf of my masculine fortitude or-“  
“No, of course not,” she answered quickly. “I just thought that maybe you were in a slump or something…… I wanted to know that you wanted me.”  
Is she serious? He thought looking at her. Something was really bothering her.  
He covered her hand with his and waited for her to look him in the eye.  
“You have nothing to worry about in that or any other department. You are so brilliant. Those eyes pierce and those lips have just the right amount of defiant pout.” He let his eyes slid over her body as he spoke; “now we have the perfect curves that nature and genetics gave you, and then we come to those incredibly sexy legs. I was smitten with you from the moment that I met you and I probably always will be. What has happened to make you question yourself like this?” His thumb was rubbing the top of her knuckles in small circles. He could tell that she wanted to tell him, but that privacy wall that she held continued to be impenetrable.  
“You’re a really good guy,” she smiled at him.   
“And you are a really good girl, but not too good,” he winked at her in the playful way that made her blush.   
“I’m sorry that I even bothered you, but I had to know…..” she pulled back and sat up straighter. “So how are you doing?”  
“I am pretty good all things considering…..”  
“Mmm, how’re things with your folks? Did they ever come around to you coming to college?”  
“They are…..coping. Dad is dealing a lot better with it than mom. She thinks that being around so many ‘destructive types’ will turn me into one of them.”   
“What do you think?”  
“I am enjoying meeting the very many different kinds of people in the world. I think that they are all interesting. I don’t always agree with everything that everyone does, but it’s my choice to do it. They respect that.”  
“Sounds like you have a handle on things without losing who you are.” She looked at him for the first time in a long time and found that she missed talking to him like this. “Do you think that we could have coffee or something again?”  
“Of course, I could never say no to you.”  
Their orders came and they continued their conversation in good spirits. Both felt the familiar friendship return between them and it was a welcomed feeling.  
“You didn’t have to walk me home. I am perfectly capable of finding my way on my own. I’ve only gotten lost three times.”  
“This week, but we still have a few days left so…..”  
They both laughed and looked at each other for a moment. He gave her a warm hug.  
“I’m glad you called me.”  
“Me too, thanks Ted.” She kissed his cheek shyly and went into her apartment.


	7. Jake pays a visit

Who’s that guy? Trent was motionless as he watched the scene before him unfold. He had seen Daria and that blonde guy walking together and they seemed familiar with each other. He had been walking towards them but they hadn’t noticed him. They were too wrapped up in their own conversation. He noted the way she seemed to be completely at ease with this guy and then she kissed him. It was on the cheek and had it been anyone else Trent wouldn’t have thought too much of it, but for Daria it meant something.  
That guy, means something, Trent thought feeling an unfamiliar stirring in the pit of his stomach. Jealous? Yep, that’s what it is he recognized. Dammit! Might need to get myself together, he thought and turned to walk away.  
“Trent, my man, fancy meeting you here,” Jake Morgendorffer’s voice greeted him as he almost bumped into him. “Thought that I would surprise Daria,” he nodded towards her apartment, “after she called me the other night…..well I got worried about her.” Jake seemed to think something over.   
“What’d she say was wrong?” Trent asked.  
“She didn’t actually say anything was wrong; it was more like what she didn’t say that bothered me. Anyway,” he shook himself out of his thoughts, “I stopped be the grocery store and I thought that I would make her dinner. Join us.”  
“I don’t want to intrude on you guys-“ Trent tried to decline , but Jake was not hearing it and put one of the two almost over flowing bags in Trent’s arms.  
“No intrusion, you and your sister are family. Come on Daria will be happy to see you.”  
Trent reluctantly followed Jake to Daria’s door. Her face was clearly surprised to see not just her father, but Trent standing behind him. Jake did all of the talking, while unpacking the groceries.  
“I got you a surprise too sweetie. I’ll go get it.” Jake left for the car clearly excited.  
“I can leave if you want,” Trent suggested once they were alone.  
“Why did you come over?”  
“I thought that we should talk. Your dad will be back soon so….”  
“You don’t have to be sorry for saying or feeling what you did. I get it. It stung, but I will be okay.” She tried to gloss over what had happened, but the sentiment didn’t reach her eyes.  
“You know I wouldn’t hurt you on purpose, and-“  
“Ta daaaa,” Jake announced placing the large bag on the table and another bag beside it. “Go ahead and open it.”  
Daria went and gingerly opened the bag. That over enthusiastic exuberance that used to annoy her at times was something that she had missed. She pushed the bag down from around the box inside to reveal a brand new Keurig coffee maker. She looked at her dad, not sure how to proceed with this new territory of sentiment that was rearing its head now.  
“I remember how you liked having coffee with me in the morning while your sister and mother ran around getting ready…..” Jake sensed his daughter’s discomfort and wanted to put her back at ease. “I thought maybe we could share the paper and a cup, like we used to. The other bag has all of the k-cups that they had available for you and there is a gift card in there for you so that you can get more of your favorite ones.”  
“Thanks dad,” Daria said softly.  
Trent watched the whole interaction and realized not for the first time that Daria was not one to be overt in showing her emotions, but it didn’t mean that she didn’t have them. If anything she was a bit more sensitive to the things that others may over look. That was one of the reasons that he hadn’t pursued her, well that and the fact that he hadn’t know how to go about it. He also saw that while Jake may appear, to some, to be an oblivious dad, he knew his child. Giving her the coffee maker gave her a piece of time that was just theirs. It was a way to show their connection.   
She needs that sometimes, Trent thought looking at her as she unpacked the rest of the items.  
“It’s got this stand that you can put the little k-cups on and just decide what you’re in the mood for and everything,” Jake went on explaining excitedly. “So one day you could have pumpkin spice and then later you might just want deep rich roast and it even brews tea. They’re some that came with it. I hope that you like it.” He glanced at her trying to get a read on her.  
“It’s perfect dad,” Daria acknowledged.   
“Now I’m going to make you dinner. I think that I have everything,” he looked in the grocery bags that Trent had put in the chairs that went with the table.   
“Maybe I should-” Daria started to protest as she flashed back to some of Jake’s less desirable meals.  
“I know what you’re thinking,” Jake stopped her, “but I have come a long way since my hot dog casserole days. “I even took a cooking class at the college back home. Ms. Turnsdale said that I was very creative.” He announced proudly.  
“Well….. what are you making?” Daria asked as she peered at some of the ingredients in the bag.  
“I have just about perfected a lasagna pizza. I know how much you love lasagna and pizza so why not combine the two?” He busied himself putting on the water for the noodles as he spoke.  
Daria watched in fascination as he worked fluidly with the ingredients, unlike what she remembered to be trial and errors when he was trying to cook and more often than not followed by an extreme amount of explicative.  
“Do you brush the dough with a garlic paste; you know to get the garlic bread in there?” Trent asked as he joined Jake at the counter.  
“Great idea, I was just infusing the garlic in the sauce that I use.” They were immediately immersed in conversations on all things culinary as they made quick work of preparing the meal. “Hey Daria, why don’t you see if Jane can join us,” Jake suggested, to which Daria agreed and went into the room to call her.   
“Yo,” Jane’s greeted her after the third ring.  
“Hey Lane, think you might be up for some home cooking?” Daria asked in, what was for her, a chipper voice.  
“Depends, whose home are we talking about? ‘Cause if its say, the Tarrare abode, I think that I will pass.” Jane gave reply whilst finishing the sketch that she had been working on.  
“My dad and Trent are in the kitchen…..”  
“Your dad is here?”  
“He wanted to surprise me.”  
“And Trent?”  
There was a slight pause before she spoke.  
“He wants to talk.”  
“I’ll be right over,” Jane replied and hung up.  
Jane was there in no time and after poking her head into the kitchen and saying hello to the guys, she retreated back to the bedroom where Daria had went to. Daria was sitting on her bed with a pen in hand, but was staring off when Jane entered. Jane fished in her pocket and produced a one dollar bill and placed it on the bed next to her friend.  
“If a penny gets me one thought, then I will take a hundred. Spill it Morgendorffer.” Jane sat crossed legged adjacent to Daria and waited. It was a moment before Daria spoke, but spoke she did.  
“I strip sometimes. For strangers; at a gentleman’s club.” Her voice was the monotone that she used to guard herself, much like when Jane had met her and she continued to look away.  
“I had lunch with someone that I am seriously contemplating entering a playfully romantic endeavor with that we both know and he is old enough to be friends with my dad,” Jane found it easy to slip back into her old protective voice as well. It suited them to do this since they were both becoming reacquainted again. They remained silent for a few moments more, before Jane spoke. “Okay, you win. Are you afraid to tell Trent? Daria, Trent isn’t judgmental. You know him.”  
“He saw me…..there,” she finished quietly.  
They turned to look at one another at the same time. Daria proceeded to relay her interaction with Trent from the moment that they’d seen each other after her show, until her father’s impromptu arrival, until now.   
“You can’t really believe that he doesn’t think of you as a sexual being? You have been his freakin’ muse for years.”  
“That’s a lovely sentiment, if you’re a teacher. I don’t want to inspire him. I want-” she stopped talking when she saw Trent appear in the doorway.  
“Your dad said that he was going to run to the market down the street to pick up something to drink. He wanted to know if you needed anything.” He directed his conversation at Daria and they found that they could no longer keep their eyes off of one another.  
“I will go with him to make sure that he gets some of the good stuff,” Jane volunteered and bounced off of the bed and out of the room.  
“I have juice and soda in the fridge, not to mention a brand new well stocked coffee machine that he bought me,” Daria said to Trent. He still stood in the doorway looking at her.  
“There may have been a bit of an accident with some of the juice in the fridge.” Trent eased into the comfort of their generic conversation grateful for its guise. He- we were trying to recreate this drink that would go with dinner, but our measurements or something were off…..”  
She nodded still looking up at him.  
“Finish your sentence, from before,” he said softly.  
She took a hard swallow and he could see the fear in her eyes.  
“I wanted you to want me in the same way that I wanted you.” There it was, she thought. She had always loved the written word, loved language itself. Now, with the threat of the bitter taste of an awful truth so near, she found words to be less than appealing to her.   
“What we have is…..special to me. I like that we talk.” He slowly moved closer to her as he spoke. “I like that you challenge me to be more than I am. I like that you are who you are and that is a very good thing.” He was standing before her now and knelt so that he was on bended knee. “I never meant to make you think that I didn’t want you. Of course I want you.”  
She could feel tell-tell stains on her cheeks as his words registered with her.  
“I don’t want pity Trent.”  
“Why can you take your clothes off for strangers, but won’t believe that I desire you?” he was truly confounded at how someone could be so intelligent in one respect, but completely off the mark in another.  
“I guess you’ve been in my dreams for so long, that I couldn’t imagine that you would reciprocate my feelings.”  
“Now who’s using who as a muse?” he did a lopsided smile that was usually reserved for when he fell asleep after a particularly pleasing meal.  
“I guess we’re both guilty of that.” They looked at one another for a moment more. “Now what?”  
He kissed her then and any words that she may have had fell to the way side.


	8. Jake has a talk with Jane

“So Jane how’s school?” Jake asked as they went down the aisle tossing in various snacks, in addition to the juices that he was replacing.   
“It’s fine.” Jane replied trying to buy Daria and Trent some time by taking her time.  
“Still painting up a storm I hope?”  
“Mm….. I am actually doing more sculpting lately, but painting has always been my fall back.”  
Jake took note of the wistfulness in her eyes as she spoke.  
“Don’t lose that, not for anything.” Jake said firmly causing her to look at him. He stopped pushing the cart and turned to speak directly to her.  
“It would be a very sad thing for the world to miss out on your talents. I might not be an expert in art, but I know that any art that can convey the raw emotions that I felt in the ones that I saw from you must be good- and that was just when you were in high school. Helen and I knew then that you were destined to do great things with it. We were so proud when you decided to pursue your art and from what Helen has told me, you’re really growing into your own as an artist.”  
To say she was stunned was putting it mildly. Jane was taken aback by Jake’s words and floored by the fact that he and Helen were taking such a parental interest in her. She was used to a much more laid back approach from her own parents.   
“Your friendship with Daria has helped to open her up a great deal and that’s no easy feat. She can a bit of an introvert at times…..”  
“Mmm…..” Jane remained in thoughtful silence.  
“Let’s get some ice cream for dessert and then head back. That should give them enough time to talk about whatever is going on between them.” Jake said casually surprising Jane once again that evening. They headed over to the frozen food aisle. 

“Did you two work through some things?” Jane asked Daria once they were alone in the front room of Daria’s apartment while the guys finished up in the kitchen. They sat adjacent to each other on the oversized sofa talking.  
“Yeah, we talked.” Daria admitted.  
“I take it from your sunny disposition, that you two have come to an understanding of sorts?”  
“Yeah,” she dropped her gaze towards the empty doorway with a slight blush, “we are going to try a hand at being an us.”  
“Awww…..so you guys are going steady now?” Jane teased. After a beat she decided to press for a bit more information. “And what about your secondary job?”  
“My job, my business,” Daria replied looking at her friend again. “He doesn’t like it, but he knows me. He said that he just wants for us to continue to move forward and not get our wires crossed.”  
“Good for you Morgendorffer. When exactly did you embark on your secondary career?”  
“Not so fast, who is this older gentleman that you are interested in and how do I know him?”   
“I’d rather not get into it right now…..at least not until I have made some sort of decision one way or another.” Jane responded reflectively thinking over her lunch earlier that day.  
“Wait, you know about Trent and me, but now you won’t spill? You love to spill.” Daria accused lightly.  
“Under normal circumstances, sure, but this isn’t just some random cute guy sighting. I want to see where things go,” Jane stated in a firm voice.  
“Do I get a name or something?” Daria relented slightly.  
“Tony.” Jane said after a moment. “That dinner was actually good,” Jane’s obvious change in subjects did not go unnoticed. “When did your dad learn to cook the right things together?”  
“He made some changes in his life too. Apparently they offer cooking classes at the local college in Lawndale and he took some. He and Trent were discussing some very interesting recipes.” Daria acknowledged as she wandered to the doorway and observed them in the kitchen. They were both studying the contents of her cabinets and cookware and discussing them.  
“And by interesting you mean….. you might want to cook for them?”  
“By interesting I mean that I would not be opposed to trying them if they were cooked for me.”  
The two friends smiled at each other.  
“I’ll take that as an invitation,” Trent seemed to appear at her side in the doorway at just the right moment.  
“Consider yourself invited then,” Daria said to him.  
“Are you two going to be this goopy every time you’re together?” Jane rolled her eyes. “If so, I’ll have to stock up on my anti-nausea medication.”  
Daria and Trent ignored her as they continued to smile at one another.  
“Well, honey I had better get back on the road. Your mother has left me three voice mails already,” Jake announced as he followed them back into the room.  
“It was good seeing you dad,” Daria said genuinely glad that he’d come. She walked him the short distance to the door. “Thanks for the coffee maker…..and stuff.” She shifted on her feet a bit.  
He leaned down and gave her a quick hug, then looked her in the eyes that were so like his, “Anytime…..” He looked past her at the brother and sister duo that had become permanent fixtures in their lives. “Jane, Trent it was good to see you.”  
“Mr. M, do you think that I could catch a ride with you? I caught the bus over and I really don’t want to wait an hour ‘til the next one.” Jane was already grabbing her messenger bag.  
“Sure thing Jane,” Jake gave a short wave and they were gone.  
Daria locked the door and turned to look at her new boyfriend.


	9. Parting is such sweet sorrow

“I’ll call you when I get home,” Trent told her as they stood at his car door. All was still around them. The streets were silent and the world itself seems frozen in this moment between them. Morning light provided silhouettes making everything that it touched seem somehow more. He looked at her face, marveling that he could do so openly now, without fear of scaring her off or of making a fool of himself and messing up their friendship. Her long brown hair hung like a thick silken curtain that framed the delicate features of her face. Her eyes looked into his with a burning intensity charged with all the emotions that they both felt. He touched the side of her face and noted the way she leaned her cheek ever so slightly against his palm lightly tinging the coolness of his hand with the warmth of her cheek. The temptation to stay was great and the soft lips that fell before his eyes beckoned him all the more, but he alas, he had obligations and responsibilities.  
“Is it stupid to say that I miss you already?” she was rambling, but he always did have an adverse effect on her. His smile was warm gentle and his unintentionally fashionable bed hair hung partially over one eye. She reached up and brushed it aside and allowed her hand to caress the side of his face in much the same fashion that he had done to her. “I would I were thy bird.” She smiled knowing that he probably didn’t know what the heck she spoke of but it was as close as she could get to express her feelings.  
He kissed her and there was no movie or book that could possibly compare. Their connection seemed to charge the air. He softly kissed her forehead and each cheek whilst cradling her face in his hands.  
“My sweet Daria, so do I. But I would kill you by petting you too much. Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow that I’ll say good night until tonight becomes tomorrow.” He finished with a satisfied smirk. The look on her face was worth reading every word of that book that she’d left on the couch. A graceful blush crossed her cheek.  
“You read Romeo and Juliet,” she stated softly.  
“You left the book at the house and I found it on the couch. I remember how you poured over it and every now and then you’d look up with this expression in your eyes…..I wanted to know what the fuss was about, so I started reading it.” He hugged her close and inhaled trying to memorize her scent.  
“I’ll be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas break. That’s not so long…..” It just feels like it. Damn it, I’m turning into a needy chick!  
“Hey Daria…..I miss you already too.” He got in the car and after a cursory wave he drove off.   
She stood there for a moment until the car was out of her view and then slowly she went back to her apartment that seemed quite large all of a sudden.


	10. Face chatting and catching up

Daria reveled in the glow of her relationship with Trent. Her studies picked up with papers becoming due before the Thanksgiving/ Christmas break and her jobs at the library and school paper were both demanding, but it all seemed somehow manageable. She hit the save button on her computer upon completion of proofreading her paper and opened up the file to make any last minute adjustments on her article for the paper. She wanted to finish as quickly as possible so that she would have time to catch a shower before having her face chat with Trent. She shook herself out of thinking about what was to come and redirected her focus on the task at hand, though she had to fight to suppress the smile that wanted to plaster itself to her lips.  
Jeez, Morgendorffer get a grip. You are a strong, independent college woman. So why do I feel like the same teenager with zero experience with guys?

“Was this a bad time?” Trent asked in his perpetually relaxed demeanor once he had sat back on his bed in front of the camera to talk with Daria.  
“No, I was just…..” she looked away slightly embarrassed. “Well, I was going to- but now- I just-“  
“It’s okay Daria….. It’s good to see you.” He ran a hand through his uniquely stylishly disheveled hair. “Tell me about your day.”  
She relaxed allowing the comfort of how at ease he was with himself to wash over her. He was in his room and had attempted some sort of cleaning to it. He was sitting back with his hands laced behind his head on a bunch of pillows to support his back and his guitar was at his side.   
He watched her as she spoke about her day from the time that she got up. She spoke in her flat monotone voice at first; the voice that he had come to realize was more of a façade to mask things she was uncomfortable with or nervousness around him. The more she talked, the more comfortable she became and she talked of certain classes and assignments with a passion that illuminated her delicate features beautifully. She was relaying an incident about a coworker that she seemed to find particularly amusing. He had edited a piece and had actually made the article worse, but the young man became so perplexed by the head editors assessment of his work, that the editor himself threw up his hands and handed it off to her. So now she had his added responsibilities, but she seemed to thrive on it. She had even managed to make notes for a new story that she was working on. It was a companion piece to her Melanie Powers series, but from a villainous standpoint. It was from what was to be someone that would serve as Melanie’s arch nemesis or so she hoped. It was still in the thinking stages and he knew that this was something that she didn’t share with anyone that early on.   
“…..and how was your day?” she asked tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.  
“Not nearly as eventful as yours was. I went down to Dega Street to help Jon with the Zon. They’re redoing it.” He continued talking about all the plans that the owner was making, while still trying to retain the essence of what drew the young demographic that comes there. It was something that he was excited about doing, but it was a little hard for him to pay attention to what he was saying when she was sitting there with a robe on that kept slipping off her shoulder every time she leaned in. That peek of shoulder hinted at everything else beneath. That in conjunction with her looking like she’d just gotten out of the shower….. well thinking about that most certainly didn’t help at all.  
“Trent, you okay?” Daria asked concerned. She noticed the way he couldn’t quite meet her eyes. He looked like he’d been caught doing something-   
Oh, she thought with a sly smile coming across her lips. So maybe I should share what I wanted to originally.  
“Hey Trent, why don’t you go and get yourself something to drink real quick?” she suggested. She watched as he got up and imagined him going to grab something from the fridge before returning to sit back in his original spot. He heard the faint sound of the music that wasn’t there before and she was-  
Hey, where did she go?  
“Daria?”  
“Just sit back and enjoy the show…..” her voice had dropped to a seductive tone that floated in the air around him.  
She came back on screen again wearing a robe, but it was a satin green with an Asiatic print. She managed to keep her back to him while giving a profiled view of her face. Her hair hung down her back in a beautiful blanket of darkened brown with auburn highlights. She moved in time with the music and raised a leg so that her bare foot was propped on the chair where she had previously sat. The robe fell away from her leg to reveal skin that seemed to be made of finer silk than the robe that she wore. She turned so that three quarters of her face and a hint of smile were shown while she let her hands trail up the length of her leg. She lowered her foot back to the floor and raised her hands over her head and caressed the entirety of each one. She faced him fully now as she brought her hands back to her waist and with one slight tug, the robe opened and she let it slide off her shoulders and ever so slowly down her arms and eventually to the floor in a pool at her feet. Of course Trent wouldn’t have known if the robe had went into a third dimension or sprouted legs and walked away, ‘cause eyes were completely captivated by the image of her body encased in black lace corset and matching thong with garter. She stared out through the camera, watching him as he took in and appreciated the performance that she was giving him.  
“I just wanted to give you something to think about when you’re away from me…..”  
“You’re .....Uh…..making this really hard here,” to say that he was caught off guard in a good way was a huge understatement.  
“That’s kind of the idea,” she said around a smirk, while still trying to maintain the seductress air.  
“That’s not what I meant.” He gave what could only be described as a roguish look, “actually it is kind of what I meant. You know it’s not fair of you to be doing that to me while you’re all the way over there.”  
She ran a hand through her hair and tossed it slightly before retrieving her robe and tying it back in place.   
“So I will be in your thoughts?” she asked demurely.  
“You already were, but now…..I want to see you right now and in person.” His voice was low and almost a growl that matched the desire in his eyes.  
“Me, too, but we both agreed to wait and make sure so that our friendship would stay intact.” His eyes are so intense right now.  
“I know, but right now there’s a part of me that wants to revisit that conversation in grave detail.” Preferably while kissing you into compliance- compliance? She is rubbing off on me. Rubbing- damn it!  
The performance at the club was nothing compared to this. That was a sexual treat, rehearsed and meant to please the audience- which it had, but this was…..personal. She wasn’t wearing those heels that he would have never thought that she could maneuver, she didn’t look like she was made up, and her hair was softer, like it didn’t have all that stuff in it to make it stay in place. She looked like a woman dancing for her man- for me. Damn. I am one lucky guy!  
“I know…..me too,” she admitted sheepishly.  
“How long before you get here?” He asked with a smirk.  
“A few weeks, maybe sooner if I get done with all my work……”  
They both thought on the possibilities of her coming back earlier.


	11. Back Home Early

She pulled into the familiar driveway feeling something that she thought that she never would- nostalgic for times gone by. Not in a million years did she ever think that she would be happy to be back in Lawndale.  
Technically I am happy to see my old home and please God let dad have kept mother from getting too happy with my old room. Okay, drop off the bags, speak to the parental units, and go surprise Trent.  
Stepping over the threshold of the door was so familiar, that she half expected to see the varying members of the Fashion Club discussing blushes, while dad read his paper in the kitchen, and her mother rushing in from work to make sure that the lasagna was heated properly, but a much more shocking sight greeted her. Her parents were in a position that she couldn’t recall seeing them in before. They were seated side by side, her mother’s head on her father’s shoulder, on the couch facing what appeared to be a new television and no one was yelling or talking about work. Everything was…..quiet. She hated to ruin what she felt was some much needed alone time together, but of course it was too late, her mother had spotted her and nudged her father.  
“Daria!” her mother exclaimed. “We thought that you wouldn’t be home for another week.”  
“Well-” she was immediately engulfed in her mother’s hugs and of course the standard look-over to make sure that everything was in order. She pulled away slightly for air and gave a curt nod to her father that stood beside her mother, before speaking. “I managed to finish up all of my assignments and I have already submitted my article for work.”  
“Now Daria, an ‘I miss you too’ would have sufficed as well. Jake, take her things up to her room while I make her something a sandwich. You must be famished honey,” she directed the last to Daria.  
“Actually, mom I was going to grab a shower and go see the Lanes.”  
“Oh? Jane’s home too?”  
“Honey, let the girl go see her friends. We weren’t expecting her anyway and I’m sure that she’ll make some time for us tomorrow to fill us in on her life,” Jake interjected.  
“Well…..okay, but tomorrow we have girl talk and a family dinner. Maybe Quinn could join us for-” Helen spoke quickly.  
“Mom, I promise that we will do something while I’m here,” Daria promised while trying to escape.  
“Okay…..” Helen reluctantly watched as her daughter escaped up the stairs with Jake following, bags in tow.  
He put her bags on the floor of her room.  
“It’s good to have you home Daria,” her dad said as he turned to leave the room.  
She watched her dad leave before making a dash to the shower. 

The sun hadn’t set yet, but the colors in the sky reminded her of sunset as she pulled to a stop in front of the Lane residence.  
Maybe it’s the way the sun is hanging in the sky. Or maybe your hormones are in overdrive and you need to just wipe that grin off of your face.  
She tried, unsuccessfully, to compose herself for a few moments more before getting out of the car. She had to mentally force herself to not run up the driveway. It had felt like so long since she’d seen him last. She was about halfway up the drive when the door opened and out he stepped. They both stopped startled at the sight of one another. They both took the few steps to close the distance between them. They stood there, his head bent and hers tilt up so that they could look into each other’s eyes.  
“I finished early…..” she said watching as he took her hands in his and kissed the palm of each one with an intensity that made her feel as though they were performing the most intimate of acts. He was looking at her hands, studying each one in turn before raising his eyes back to hers again. “You headed out?”  
He did a slow nod.  
“I could come back if you’re busy,” she suggested not sure why he was being so quiet.  
He pulled her to him in an abrupt manner, causing her to gasp. He gave a moment more to allow the pad of his thumb to graze her bottom lip before leaning in to kiss her. It was supposed to be a sweet ‘I’m glad to see you’ kiss and it was, or at least it started out that way, but the more they kissed, the more that he remembered how very much he had been missing her and of course the images of the private show that she’d given him seemed to burst forth from where he kept them tucked away for his own daydreams and private late night viewings. A part of him still remembered how shy she’d been and he didn’t want to frighten her, but judging from her kisses and the way she was pressing her body against his, she was feeling the same way.   
“Damn…..I promised to help get the place ready to open for tonight; you know ‘cause of the revamping that we’ve been working on.” His voice was thick and his forehead was against hers so that their eyes could stay connected as he spoke.  
“Oh,” she was disappointed, but she understood.   
“Come by later for my set?”  
“Sure.”  
He kissed her again for good measure before watching her get into her car and pulling off. That soft green sweater and those jeans were really complementing to her.  
Damn she’s lookin’ good. 

 

The Zon  
The stage was jet black. The unseen announcer graced the mike.  
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back ‘The Spiral’…..”  
The air felt charged with an excitement that felt as though something monumental was on the precipice. The crowd felt it, Daria felt it as she found herself practically holding her breath with anticipation, and the band felt it. As Nicholas, Max, and Jesse began the intro three lights pooled around them, then the moment Trent began to sing, the light hit him. His voice was low and raspy as he raised his bowed head slightly and carried the spellbinding atmosphere that held the audience.

I forgive you,  
For knowing what you do  
I forgive you,  
For acting like you do  
Keepin’ me at arm’s length  
When you know you want me too  
Baby I forgive you  
Cause without you, just won’t do.  
Chorus:  
Forgive you…..  
Forgive you…..  
Forgive you….

I forgive you,  
For staying on my mind,  
Thinking ‘bout you night and day,   
Everything else…..just a waste of time  
Baby please forgive me,  
For not knowing what to do  
Just know that you are my home  
And I’ll never stop lovin’ you…..

The crowd roared and the band launched into their latest rendition of Icebox Woman to keep the excitement going. Tonight was a good night for ‘The Spiral’.


	12. At The Zon

Daria watched as he strolled towards her in his laid back manner.  
There’s something different about him. He’s proud…..and he should be. The Spiral had turned the club out tonight. They had pleased the crowd and themselves. I’m kind of proud myself. I always knew that there was more to Trent Lane than what he showed the world.  
“You made it,” his voice was thick with excitement; it was clear that he had enjoyed himself tonight.  
“You guys were really good…..better than good actually. You owned the audience tonight.” Her statements were all true.  
“So do I get a proper hello kiss from you?”  
A part of her wouldn’t normally want such a public display, but apparently being Trent Lane’s girlfriend made her a bit more emboldened to ‘go with the flow’ as he’d suggested on occasion. She brought his head down to meet hers in a kiss that was meant to be quick, but the moment their lips touched, that damned spark ignited a flame that made them both lose themselves in one another. Trent led them, without breaking the connection, to the hallway just outside the dressing room that The Spiral used.  
Locked, damn!  
“Jesse has the key,” he breathed raggedly, disappointment evident.  
“It’s okay,” she indulged in burying her face in the crook of his neck and teasing the skin that was available to her.  
“You play dirty-“ he closed his eyes enjoying the sensations that she was causing. Her lips- no- her mouth was like a delightful torture device and he was her willing victim. Victim? Nah that wasn’t right, more like willing accomplice.  
“Is” kiss, “That” nibble, “a complaint?” slight nip. She asked as she continued.  
He switched their positions abruptly so that she was against the wall and he had better access to her. He looked at her and she was lovely. Her faced was slightly flushed, not from embarrassment, but from what was going on between them. She was aroused and by him. It was in those moments of looking at her that he knew with certainty that this thing between them was something more than just attraction. The attraction was a high all itself, but he wanted to make her happy in every way and as loathe as he was to admit it to himself, he needed to put a stop to what was about to happen between them if they let their bodies do the talking.  
“Daria….” Damn she can kiss, maybe if we just- nah, aw man. “Daria-“  
She looked at him confused.  
“What’s wrong?”  
“Wrong? Nothing, I think that maybe we should maybe go on a date before we- well you know.” He couldn’t look at her and hope to not completely ravish her right then and there.  
Geez, I thought that I was the chick in this relationship?  
“Don’t tell me that I am being to forward for you Trent,” Daria teased.  
“Nah, I just want for us to……last,” he fished around for the right words. “I really don’t want to screw this up between us. It feels so right.”  
“I know what you mean and maybe you’re right.” She reached up and touched the side of his face gently. “You are amazing Trent Lane.”  
She wouldn’t allow him to duck his head. Instead she held his gaze for a long moment.  
“Let’s go grab something to drink before my last set,” he suggested.  
Best to keep busy before we……  
They moved towards the food area in back with him leading the way and holding her hand.  
“Daria, Trent, how’s it going?” a familiar voice called out from the side. Trent spotted him first, but Daria knew that it was Tom before she’d even saw him.  
“Hey Tom,” Trent’s voice was its usual easy going tone, but Daria did feel a slight tightening in the hold that he had on her hand.  
“Tom.” Daria acknowledged with a curt nod.  
“Why don’t you guys join me in the booth over here,” he ushered them to sit down and took note that they sat beside each other. He took a seat across from them and took a drink from the glass that he had there. “So where’s Jane?” he addressed them with what Daria recognized as his polite smile.  
“She won’t be home for a couple of days….you know, school,” Trent replied with nonchalance. Trent gestured to the waitress to get them a drink.  
“So….. well I am home for the holiday. Maybe we could catch a movie or something?” he’d been purposefully vague. “It would give us a chance to catch up.”  
“I’m really kind of booked up…..” Daria tried to be polite.  
“We could have lunch tomorrow?” his voice was full of hope.  
“I can’t. I told my mom that I would be available.” Daria knew that she could probably make some time for Tom, but considering how their last encounters had gone, she’d just as soon forgo any mess scenes.  
He turned his attention to Trent. “Caught the last song of your set; sounding decent. Must have gotten in more than your usual hour of weekly practice,” he tried to joke, but it fell flat. He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “What’s the matter, you lose your sense of humor?”  
“Nah, I get where that came from. The Spiral and myself used to take it rather easy, but it’s always been about the music. We’ve grown a lot.” His statements were simple, true, and effective.  
“Trent, we need you,” Max interrupted looking more than a little upset.  
Trent looked at Daria questioningly. She squeezed his arm slightly to let him know that it was okay. The waitress arrived and gave Daria her drink and had given Trent his as he left with Max.  
“Don’t worry Trent, I’ll keep her company,” Tom said as Trent left with Max. Tom turned back to where Daria sat across from him.  
“Tom, I’m not sure what is going on with you, but I don’t think that we have anything to say to one another.”  
It was like talking to teenage Daria all over again. The cold and unresponsiveness that would just as soon as obliterate you with words rather than get to know you was one of her most effective distancing tools.  
“I know that we weren’t in a good place, but I have always valued your friendship and I would like to try and rebuild some of that- at least have us be able to have a genuinely polite conversation sometime.” He gave her his sincerest look. “Just think about it.”  
She’d taken a sip of her tea to gain a moment or two to think. It was true that she had enjoyed their talks in the past, but after they had tried to make things work the last time, it had ended rather nastily. Years had past and she had most certainly grown, maybe he had as well.  
This is your fault Trent, your easy going manner is contagious.  
“Okay…..we can try the friend’s thing.”  
“So, in the interest of friendship to be or whatever, I would like it if you joined me and my girlfriend for lunch or dinner over the holiday. I think that you would like her, she’s a History major.”  
“So does this historian have a name or should I just call her Miss Historian?”  
“Her name is Sarah Desmond,” he sat back taking a long drink from his glass again. “We met at a reading of The Prince and found that we have a lot in common.”  
“I see.” She resisted urge to comment and took another sip of tea.  
“Trent’s not trying to corrupt you, is he?” he teased with a nod towards the drink.  
“It’s tea.”  
“From Long Island?”  
She ignored his remark.  
“I should go and make sure that everything is okay.” She got up to leave, but he placed a hand on her arm to stop her.  
“How about tomorrow night? Your folks can have you all day, but tomorrow night you belong to me…..and Sarah of course. I think that you will like her or at least I hope that you will.”  
“Okay, then.” She agreed.  
“We could meet at the movies across the street?”  
“Sure.” She disengaged herself then and went to find Trent.  
He was with the rest of The Spiral mediating between Jesse and Max about who came in on what bar. She watched how he kept everyone calm and managed to keep everyone on the same page. He was just so good at being…..well him. When he finished he immediately went to her.  
“We can leave after the second set…..if you still want to stay.”  
“Well that game of Hearts with mom is just so tempting, but I am already here.”  
He gave her a side smile.  
“So, did you and Tom catch up?”  
“Apparently not enough,” she said around a slight frown. “He wants to meet for a movie tomorrow with Sarah. His girlfriend,” she explained to his quizzical raised brow.  
Trent wanted to date her before anything happened physically, but hanging out with Tom wasn’t what he had in mind.  
“So can you come?”  
“Yeah.”  
That should be interesting, they both thought.


	13. Freshman Year Raft

She pulled away from the kiss that she’d just moments ago had been so engrossed in. Not one to be deterred, he pulled her back to him and nuzzled her neck.  
“Come on, we need to stop,” she said still feeling the delightful effects of making out, but knowing that she didn’t want to progress any further.  
“…..but I really don’t want to,” he said honestly. He had been a patient friend and boyfriend, but right now at this moment he just wanted his girlfriend to let things happen.  
“I know, but I told you, I’m not ready.” She hated feeling like this. Of course she wanted to have sex with her boyfriend, but she just didn’t feel ready.  
He stopped nuzzling her neck and looked at her side profile.   
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t…..” she had no plausible explanation other than her gut telling her that she wasn’t ready. She didn’t want to make him feel bad, but she had to be honest.  
“We’re in college. We are young adults and we can do whatever we want. I just don’t understand the problem,” he stated with precise logic.  
“We are all of those things, but just because we can do it, don’t mean that we should. I’m still discovering who I am.” She faced him imploring him with her eyes. “I really care for you and I hope that you can try to understand.”  
He touched the side of her face. “This would be a hell of a lot easier if you didn’t have those sexy lips that keep calling to me.” He said lightening the mood.  
She smiled at him glad that he seemed to be backing off a bit.  
“Well we should watch the move before it gets late. We both have classes early and you have a long drive back.”  
She popped in the movie and they faced the screen. She didn’t snuggle into him like she usually did because she didn’t want another scene. She sat beside him and pretended to be unaware that he was watching her most of the time. The screen paused and she turned to him with a questioning look.  
“You can still sit near me. I won’t try anything,” he said trying to figure out, not for the first time, what was going on in her head.  
“I just didn’t want to mislead you about….anything.”  
“You say that you’re not ready. I just want to understand why. We know each other and we both want to- unless you don’t want to?”  
“I don’t know how to explain it.” She looked back at the frozen screen trying to find the words to express something that she hadn’t fully figured out yet. “It’s not like I don’t want to have sex. I do, but it just doesn’t feel right for me yet.”  
“Have you ever thought that maybe it’s just good old fashioned nerves?” He tried to take her hands in his, but she pulled away. “It’s something new for us as a couple and it is a way to become closer. Don’t you want to be closer to me?”  
“There’s no guarantee that we would become closer.” She remained facing away from him. “It could do us more harm than good…..”  
“I’m not angry. Like I said, I am just trying to understand….. is there someone else?”  
She looked at him sharply then, with a mixture of hurt and anger.  
“I didn’t mean-“he tried to repair the damaging reminder of how their relationship had started. “We are at two different schools and there are new people in our lives all the time. It wouldn’t be that big of a stretch to think-“  
“Let me save you trouble right there. I haven’t met anyone else and I wouldn’t- I mean I- I-“she was at a bit of a loss for words. Her past seemed to tarnish everything that she wanted to say. Once a cheater, always a cheater, strayed across her mind. “You should go.”  
“We need to be able to talk about things if we’re ever going to grow together right?” He watched her turn over his words in her mind before relenting slightly. “Why do you always assume the worst?”  
“Experience,” was her knee jerk response that earned them both a smirk, before she turned to face him. “I guess that if I just go ahead and play out how bad a situation will be myself, it’ll hurt less when it eventually does happen for real.”  
This was more than she’d ever given him, he thought. He took her hands in his and gently caressed them as he urged her to continue.  
“I know that I am not an easy person. I am hard on people. I just don’t want to do something that I’m not ready for- something that we aren’t ready for, together.”   
“Let me ask you something and don’t get mad, but I feel like I need to know.” He watched her expressions as she tried to guess at what he wanted to know, but ultimately she gave a curt nod. “When we got together the first time, you may have had feelings for someone that wasn’t reciprocating them, have those feelings returned?”  
“What are you talking about?” she asked with a growing sense of embarrassment. “I wasn’t even seeing anyone.”  
“I know that you weren’t seeing anyone, but you were interested in someone…..”  
Oh my God! How could he have possibly known? Jane said that she’d never told anyone.  
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Everyone has had a crush in their life. I just know that when you put a lot of stock in people you don’t give up on them.”  
She squared her shoulders and looked at him with the most unreadable expression that she could muster before speaking.  
“That whole thing was so long ago…..I don’t even know why you would bring it up now, unless there is someone that you have reconnected with from your past. Besides, he never thought of me like that.”  
“I just meant that your relationship experience is…..limited….. and if you fell back into old patterns-“  
“Old patterns? What the hell are you talking about?” she fired angrily.  
“When things get too serious with one person you tend to go back to something safe and familiar. In this case the fantasy of a relationship is more appealing to you than a real more attainable one that’s right in front of you.”  
“That’s not true. There is no one else and I don’t do what you said.”  
“Really? What about that guy that you worked with on yearbook? You liked him and he liked you, but you withdrew and went back to pining for someone that was too stupid to even realize what was going on.” He was becoming angry too. She could be so stubborn about some things and it drove him crazy, but this conversation had been a long time coming.  
“He’s not stupid.” Her statement was short, but for him it spoke volumes. “I don’t want to argue about this. I told you that I’m not ready and if you don’t want to continue with this relationship knowing that, then we should just stop now.”  
“We’re old enough that we should be able to talk about these kinds of things without you threatening to leave me.” He tried to return the conversation to a more level tone. “I really care for you and I want us to be able to talk about everything.”  
“I care for you too or I wouldn’t have agreed to us giving it another try, but you can’t insult my friends just because you’re mad at me.” Her eyes were unyielding and remained level with his.  
“I’m not mad at you and I didn’t mean to insult anyone.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I was hoping this time that our relationship would be about us.”  
She knew what he was insinuating, but that didn’t make it true.  
“You have to admit that when we first dated we always had someone with us as a buffer. I’m not saying that we can’t have friends, but there should be time for just us too. That’s how couples get closer.”  
She had crossed her arms across her chest, a move that he immediately recognized as a defense mechanism.  
“Don’t do that,” he said softly, “don’t close yourself off from me.” He went to kneel before her then spoke again. “I just want us to be the kind of couple that can discuss things and become closer.  
“I’m trying, but I’m just not sure of what you want me to say.” She stated honestly.  
“I just think,” he laced their fingers and spoke as earnestly as he could, “that if we can’t even say his name, then there must be something there.”  
“I can say his name just fine, but rehashing something that never even happened seems pointless.”  
“Then why do you never talk about him and whenever Jane does you change the subject or leave the room? Heck Jane and I actually dated and we’re fine in normal conversation. So what’s the deal?”  
She opened and closed her mouth, but she didn’t know what she was supposed to say. That part of her life, she had always kept separate and apart and now he was asking her open up about something that she hadn’t shared with anyone else.  
“Tom, when it comes to Trent…..well that was high school. I would prefer to just forget about my embarrassing behavior back then.”  
He could tell that she was having trouble discussing this –him, but at least she had tried and that was something.  
What the heck was so difficult about this? I know that she’s a lot more sensitive than she lets on, but damn! I never understood her fascination with him back when Jane and I were talking. As far as I was concerned she simply hadn’t been exposed to anyone else and that was the reason behind that mystery. It was during that time that I began to really take notice of her and that razor sharp wit. I began to appreciate her humor and see the beauty that she’d kept so very well hidden. She’d been a puzzle to be solved. The more that I found out, the more I needed to know.  
“I want you to think about something and don’t say anything right now…..I love you. Now,” he stood and pulled on the jacket that he’d left draped over the back of the sofa, “get you some rest and I will see you tomorrow.” He walked to the door pretending not to see the cold fear that had plastered itself across her face.   
She just needed time to adjust. She will realize that she feels the same way and everything will be fine.   
The door had closed behind him and Daria had sat very still for a very long time. Love? The concept seemed foreign to her. She knew what it was supposed to mean of course. She had read the great romantic stories and had seen its many forms, but as for its application to herself, well that had never really seemed possible. She had told him that she cared for him. Why couldn’t that be enough? She sat there long into the night trying to find answers that weren’t forthcoming.


	14. Double Date

Two couples sat in a booth across from one another after having come from the movies two doors down.  
“That movie was…..interesting,” Sarah said delicately.  
“That’s not the word I would use, but I suppose in the right frame of mind…..” Daria joined the conversation.  
“Yeah, if you’re completely wasted, am I right Trent?” Tom remarked wryly.   
“I don’t know Tom, I think every movie is probably made with a market in mind. The key is to make sure that market sees it.”  
Tom rolled his eyes and there was a momentary silence.  
“So how long have you two known each other?” Sarah asked Trent and Daria, as she demurely sipped at her tea. She was a lovely girl with green eyes and jet black hair that she wore in loose waves that hung down just past her shoulders. She was quite stylish with the latest cool jeans and matching sweater, but she was quite tasteful and didn’t carry an air of snobbery like Daria had feared that she might.  
Daria and Trent looked at each other, both trying to put a number to something that they’d felt had been their whole life.  
“Oh, you can’t really put a time on something like what they have,” Tom added in a hushed tone. “Right Trent?” he added with what sounded like false comradery to Daria’s ears.  
“Yeah, right,” Trent agreed seemingly unaware of whatever was going on with Tom.  
“Well I think it’s great that you two were friends first.” Sarah declared. “Tom tells me that you’re a writer Daria.”  
“Well, I do some articles here and there.” Daria said demurely.  
“Oh, don’t be so modest Daria,” Tom coaxed. “You write articles for a newspaper, while working at the library too and you haven’t even finished school yet. Most people would have burnt out by now.”  
“Wow, sounds like you have a lot going on.” Sarah said clearly awed.  
“Well…..I just like to keep busy. So Tom what are your classes looking like?” Daria changed the subject.  
“Some business classes here and there to prepare me for the family business,” he sounded bored with the whole thing.  
“Tom, I thought that you were looking forward to taking over for your father,” Sarah said turning to him confused at this persona that had emerged seemingly overnight.  
He just took a drink of his coffee and looked at her really hard until she looked back at her own cup.  
“If you don’t want to work there, then don’t,” Trent stated.  
“You wouldn’t understand,” Tom mocked.  
“What’s to understand, you get to decide how your life goes. You don’t have to do what is expected of you.” Trent countered.  
“You probably believe that don’t you?” he asked Trent. “Look, my parents are- well they aren’t like yours. They expect things from their children and anything less- well, just isn’t acceptable.”  
“Why?” Trent’s voice remained completely and utterly level.  
“Why?” Tom seemed truly confounded for a moment before regaining his composure and settling back into his usual laid back pose in the booth. “You’re right of course and I do apologize for my crudeness. I had….. words with my folks just before we went out.”  
Sarah covered his hand with her own and gave a gentle squeeze. Daria and Trent took a drink from their respective cups before Tom spoke again.  
“Well now that I have made the evening officially weird, what’s say we try this again, my treat at the Italian place just outside of town?” Tom suggested. “Come on, let me make it up to you guys?”  
“My schedule is really packed while I’m here,” Daria replied. “Jane comes home tomorrow and my Aunt Amy will be her for Thanksgiving.”  
“Thanksgiving?” Tom had almost forgotten that there was a holiday.  
“We’re having dinner at my folks, remember?” Sarah asked concerned.  
“Yeah, it just seemed like it snuck up on me, that’s all…..”  
“Tom, are you okay?” Daria asked. His behavior seemed off to her, but she hadn’t been in contact with him for years.  
“I’m good. It’s just this time of year and classes and family obligations…..everything piles up. Anyhow, we should definitely do this again when things settle a bit. Maybe after the holiday?”  
“Maybe…..” Daria relented slightly.  
“Good, we’ll figure out something then.” Tom seemed to relax slightly. “So Trent, what’s new on the music front?”  
Trent gave a nonchalant shrug before speaking.  
“Max lined up some studio time for us, so hopefully that will pan out and we’re working on some new material.”  
“Oh maybe you two could work together,” Sarah said excitedly. “It would be so romantic,” she said wistfully. “I mean how much more poetic can you get? A singer and a writer that were friends and now-”  
“Sarah, you’re embarrassing them,” Tom admonished her.  
“Sorry, but I tend to find a romantic lining in just about anything that I see.” Sarah looked at Daria and Trent expectantly.  
“It’s okay,” Trent said and took a drink from his cup. “We’ve never really talked about working together or anything.”  
“You should both think about it. It could be fun.” Sarah encouraged.  
“Tom tells us that you are a history major.” Daria stated.  
“Yes and I really hope that one day I can apply it towards teaching at my own gallery one day. Art draws us in with its complexity and knowing the stories behind it allows us to see the world through the artist’s eyes.”   
She should meet Jane.  
“That is an ambitious plan.” Trent noted clearly impressed.


	15. Holiday Shopping

“Daria, wake up!” Quinn’s voice penetrated her sisters sleep.  
Daria responded by rolling on her side and giving her the best glare that she could manage around a yawn.  
“Don’t be mad at me, it’s your own fault for staying out all night, besides mom said that you agreed to go shopping. I have all of the sales mapped out and I’ve arranged everything according to importance and the timing of the sales events for the pre-Thanksgiving day ads.”  
Daria listened to Quinn yammering on about the sales in an excited voice that not too long ago she would have mocked, but she again found that she welcomed the familiarity of something that she had fought so hard to get away from.  
“…..okay, okay…..I need the shower and I’ll be ready.” She dragged herself from bed and grabbed her robe on the way to the bathroom. Once in the shower she let the water revive her to some semblance of being awake. There she had thought over the double date and the after date that she had shared with Trent. They had sat in the car at the park and talked most of the night. Remembering the brush of the tips of his slightly calloused fingers as they brushed her knuckles when he’d taken her hand in his, brought an involuntary smile to her lips. Once dressed, she made her way to the kitchen where Quinn and her mother were going over the plans for the day and her father read the paper. Her dad poured a cup of coffee and slid it across the table towards her. She took the cup and sipped at it grateful.  
Oh, thank goodness.  
“So are you ready Daria, cause Aunt Amy should be in by lunch time and I am hoping to have hit all of the major places by then,” Quinn finished and turned to her with Helen at her side.  
“Let her get some breakfast Quinn, she’s definitely going to need it for today,” Helen interjected.  
“Okay something quick and then we are out of here.” Quinn conceded and left with her clipboard in her hand.  
“How much coffee has she had?” Daria mused aloud.  
“Now Daria, you know how your sister is about sales and ever sense she incorporated learning how to utilize the sales to her advantage, well there’s practically nothing that she can’t get in some kind of deal. Besides, you could learn something from her these days.” Helen informed her oldest daughter as she watched Daria put the bread in the toaster.  
“Mm…..” Daria waited for the toast to pop up and slathered it generously with the strawberry jam that was on the table. She would most definitely need to keep her energy up if Quinn was on this kind of energy trip and of course she wanted to see Jane when she got home today. Trent had planned to cook a little something and Daria wanted to help.  
“Have fun.” Jake said as he watched the trio of ladies leave for the day.


	16. Helen has a problem

“Did you know about this?” Helen asked Jake as he entered the kitchen where she had been talking to Amy about the bombshell that Daria had dropped on her at lunch.  
“Know about what?” Jake peered into the pot at what his wife was trying to cook and as casually as he could scooched her over so that he could salvage the onions that she was trying to sauté.   
“Daria is dating Trent Lane.” Helen stated and noted with annoyance that her husband registered neither surprise, nor concern.  
“Helen sit down before you pop a blood vessel or something Amy tried calming her sister. “I really don’t see what the big deal is. Daria is old enough to decide whom she wants to date and she smart enough to choose wisely.” Amy looked right back at her sister’s challenging gaze, which was no easy feat considering that look at caused many a criminal to squirm in her line of work.  
“I just want to make sure that she chooses wisely and not get caught up in the youthful fancies of something that might not last.” Helen turned her attention to Jack. “I take it you don’t have a problem with our daughter’s feelings getting run through a shredder either?”  
Jake added the flour to make the rue and stirred until the browned paste formed to make the gravy before answering as he added water until it formed the correct consistency for him.  
“Of course I would have a problem if I thought that was what’s happening, but we know Trent.” He added the steaks to the mixture and stirred it until bubbly before turning the heat down and covering it. “Were you planning on having the mashed potatoes as the side?”  
“Yes,” she said offhandedly, “Look, I like Trent, but he’s just not right for our daughter.”  
“Shouldn’t that be Daria’s choice?” Amy chimed in.  
“As smart as she is, she’s just so young. She would benefit from her mother’s perspective.”   
“Why is he so ‘not right’ for her?” Amy asked.  
“He doesn’t appear to have any ambition, He isn’t in college, and he’s still in the same band as he was in when we met him, he’s a bit of a slacker, and he has no long term means of supporting her.” She waited for their reactions to her hastily prepared list. Amy took a drink of her coffee and Jake started preparing the potatoes. “I won’t be made to feel like I’m wrong in trying to protect my daughter from getting hurt.” She looked at them again before leaving up the stairs.  
“She’s not a happy camper,” Amy said once Helen was well out of earshot.  
Jake, with his back to her, smiled at the memory of their ill-fated family camping trip that had ended with a medical E-vac from the hallucinogenic berries that they’d eaten.  
“I’ll talk to her later.”  
“You do seem awfully….. Relaxed about everything Jake,” Amy noted.  
“I just see things a little differently than Helen. She wants the best for Daria- we both do, but only Daria knows what’s truly best for herself and she could do a whole lot worse than Trent. He’s a good kid, that’s had to take on more than what he should have at an early age.”  
Amy remembered Helen mentioning The Lane siblings and how close Daria was to them. They were an odd pair that fit in perfectly with Daria. It seemed that they were the only source of socialization Daria had for the longest time until she had dated Tom and even that near disaster hadn’t destroyed them.

 

Later…..  
“I know what’s best for her Jake,” Helen stated when her husband had come in the bedroom.  
He nudged her legs over and sat facing his wife.  
“I know that you think you do and you may be right. You are the smartest and shrewdest person that I know,” he squeezed her knee earning him a tiny smile reminiscent of Daria. “I also know that you have been an inspiration to both our girls and if they take your lead, then they will do wonderfully in life.”  
“I just want her to have everything and not squander her youth and the chances that she has available to her now.” Helen explained to her husband. “Trent is…..”  
“He’s our daughter’s choice and a great guy. I don’t have to tell you these things, because you already know them. So what’s the real problem here?” Jake took Helen’s hand in his.  
“I want more for her.” Her eyes pleaded with his to understand.  
“Your mom wanted the same things for you too.” He could still remember the harsh words every time he would pick Helen up.  
“Oh, come on Jake. I am nothing like my mother. She was completely unreasonable and totally wrong about you. She just didn’t understand.” The argument sounded like a future echo that she would have with Daria even to her own ears. She sighed at the futility of the situation.  
“We don’t want to alienate her. Just spend some time with Trent.” Jake suggested.  
“Okay….. I will talk to Trent.”  
“That’s all I ask.” He kissed her on the forehead before going to the door to check on dinner.  
“Jake?” He turned back to her. “When did you become such great mediator?”  
He shrugged and left the room. Helen stared long after her husband had left before picking up the cell phone by her bed and making the call that she felt was necessary.


	17. ......I need a favor

“Hello.”  
“Hey, I really could use a favor…..”  
“What is it?” was the hesitant reply.  
“I have a ‘sold out only’ show for Saturday night and I am short a few girls,” Barry’s normally slick demeanor seemed to be unraveling over the phone.  
“Barry….. I would love to help you but…..”  
Barry had known that it would be a long shot. The writing had pretty much been on the wall when she had got with that musician. She’d never admit it aloud, but that guy had been the reason that she’d pushed herself up to do what she did. Many of the girls- er ladies start out one way, but lose focus when the money rolls in good and that’s fine. It’s just that later in life, they may regret not pursuing their original plan, but not Daria. She had a very specific plan in mind and she wasn’t deterring from it. She had made it clear from the very beginning that she would not be a pole dancer. She would be doing something more of a burlesque style that teased the audience and kept them coming back for more. He had been skeptical, but it had worked. The big spenders liked the look of a lady that could be on their arm during the day, but knew how to handle things in the bedroom at night. She and a scant few others had set the bar very high for his gentleman’s club. Of course he had the good old fashioned take ‘em off and show ‘em what you got girls, but they weren’t allowed to do anything other than what was on stage. Lap dances were the trickiest for him. He couldn’t really blame a guy for not automatically touching what was being rubbed up against him, but the ladies had to be protected. He had his regular bouncers, but also some discreet security to make sure that the ladies weren’t hurt. He knew other places that didn’t do half of what he did and at first he had wanted to do everything to turn a quick buck, but he was glad that he listened to Daria and looked at the big picture. No, he couldn’t change what other people did, but he could make everyone else try and raise the bar by looking at him.  
“Caroline is snowed in with her folks, Vasmine is in Vegas eloping, and Lucianna twisted her ankle. There’s not enough time to get new A-listers in here-“  
“It’s okay Barry, I’ll be there, but this is pretty much my swan song, okay?” Daria relented. Barry had been a good friend to her and had let her do something that she had needed to do regain some kind of control in her life at a time when she had really needed it. No kisses had ever been exchanged and no dates had been gone on. They had simply hit it off as friends and that was what they had both been happy with.  
“Now, do you know a few other class acts that would be willing to make a few bucks on short notice?”  
A slow smile came over her face and she nodded before actually saying anything.  
“Maybe, I’ll call you later if I find someone.”  
“Okay and thanks in advance.”   
He sounded relieved and that was good. A high strung Barry was not useful in any situation. He was the very definition of a slick talking salesperson, but with none of the smarminess.   
“And just what are you up to?” Quinn’s voice came from the doorway where she’d been about to enter and check on her sister.  
Daria’s faced immediately returned to its unreadable expression before she answered.  
“Going to see the Lanes.” She grabbed the purse that she’d came upstairs to get and put her cell phone in it.  
“Mind if I tag along? I can not be here with mom, dad, and Aunt Amy. They will devour me with questions.”  
“…..okay, but no whining or any of that junk. These are my friends. Show some respect.” Daria chastised firmly.  
“I’m not in high school anymore, Daria. I just think that it would be nice….. Us hanging out.” Quinn’s voice held that same bit of wistful hopefulness that she always got whenever she saw and remembered the fights that their mother and aunts would have.  
“You can come,” Daria proceeded to move past her in the doorway but stopped to look at Quinn before speaking. “We are not mom and her sisters.”  
Once upon a time they weren’t like that either, Quinn thought.  
The sisters left in Daria’s car after giving the adults in the kitchen a goodbye shout.  
“They looked kind of serious in there,” Quinn commented while they waited on the Lane doorstep.  
Daria gave Quinn a look that said that they both knew what the conversation had been about before turning back to the door.  
The door opened with a slightly disheveled Trent brightening up when he saw Daria.  
“Hey Daria.”  
“Hey.”  
After a moment, Quinn got the distinct impression that the couple were having some sort of silent intimate conversation that she wasn’t privy to. They didn’t say anything else, but the looks and slight blushes were enough to make her feel more than a little out of place. She cleared her throat.  
“…..sorry,” Trent stood aside and let Quinn pass. He slipped his hand in Daria’s and gave a gentle squeeze as she entered.   
“So….. What’s on the agenda for today?” Quinn asked in an upbeat voice that was reminiscent of Jake.  
Trent looked at Daria in surprise at this new inclusion. He was glad that Daria and Quinn had a better relationship now. He had been witness to how much it had hurt Daria when Quinn, in the throes of selfish adolescence, had denied that Daria was her sister or even related to her at times. He had heard the quips that Daria would make to diffuse the underlying pain and alienation that she’d felt growing up and feeling like she would never fit in with her own family.  
“Jane’s home.”  
His eyes never wavered from Daria’s as he spoke.  
“She brought a friend…..says she’s helping her with some sort of project.”  
“Not project, she’s got some….. Control issues that I am helping her with.” Jane’s voice supplied from the kitchen area. She came out dressed in her running clothes and her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She had clearly just come from a run.   
A wave of nostalgia washed over Daria seeing her friend looking much like her high school self.   
“You’re helping her with control issues?” Daria teased.  
“I’ll have you know that I have excellent control. I haven’t come over there and throttled you have I?” Jane shot back.  
“It’s good to see you.” Daria said truthfully.  
“And you too.” Jane regarded her friend noting the lightness that Trent seemed to bring to Daria’s naturally serious nature.   
“Hi everybody,” Shalah said entering the room. Jane introduced her to everyone and watched as Shalah relayed how they had met in class.  
“Jane, can we talk a sec?” Daria asked and they retreated to Jane’s room as they had so many times before.  
“What’s this all about?” Jane asked once the door was closed. “It’s all so cloak and dagger,” she smirked with hands on her hips.  
“My friend Barry is short a couple of girls for a sold out Saturday night. Know anyone that might want to earn a couple of bucks and help out?”   
Damn her unreadable face.  
“I am completely serious by the way.”  
“Oh, I’m sure you are.” She thought another second before replying. “I’ll do it. Now do I get a costume?” Jane smiled mischievously.  
“That is completely up to you,” Daria told her in all seriousness. The ladies continued to discuss the details of what would be expected and made plans for them all to drive back early Saturday morning since Daria had her car.

“You guys look like you are up to something,” Quinn observed as the duo emerged from Jane’s room.  
“We are,” Jane agreed.  
“And it’s called none of your business,” Daria replied as she joined Trent in the kitchen. “What’s this?” she peered into the pot that he was stirring.  
“The gravy for tomorrow. You know, Thanksgiving.” Trent covered the pot and turned it off, then faced Daria. “You’re still coming over for dessert right?”  
“Aw geez Trent,” Jane mocked, “we don’t need to hear the gory details of your bedroom talk.  
“Yes I am,” Daria agreed after shooting Jane a dirty look.   
“You’re not coming over for Thanksgiving Dinner?” Quinn was surprised that the new pairing didn’t want to spend every second together.  
“We discussed it and decided that the time that we have together would be best spent together and not answering questions that neither of us are ready for,” Daria replied.  
Smart, Quinn thought. You give the parents what they want without letting them railroad you into uncomfortable situations. No one wants an inquisition over dinner.   
“Jane, could I talk to you for a minute?” Shalah looked concern after reading what Jane assumed was a text from her phone.   
“So Trent, I hear The Spiral has studio time lined up,” Quinn announced to Daria and Trent’s surprise.  
“Yeah, we go in next week.” How the heck did she find out he hadn’t even had the chance to tell Daria the details yet.  
“Stacy told me,” Quinn announced as if that explained everything. “She’s dating Max,” she offered as further explanation. “Anyway, Trent you should totally get Jane to do a couple of videos for you guys. One could be a before they blew up, behind-the-scenes kind of the thing and the other could be all about the song you record. We could put it online and link it to a popular person’s page and that would get you a whole new fan base and exposure that you guys are in desperate need of.”  
Trent looked at her. He knew what she was talking about and had even skimmed over some of those ideas himself, but hearing all of that out loud and knowing how much more there was to it, made everything feel like so much more. The chances of them making it big were a long shot, but it was what they had always wanted and dammit, he was ready.  
“….not that popularity is ‘everything’,” Quinn had continued while a slightly thrown Trent and Daria stared at her, “but in this case it would prove useful, especially if she- or he, gave it a good review and linked it to the pages of some other popular people and it took off in a semi-underground kind of way. The Spiral would be out there without having to pay for expensive advertising. What does your manager say?”  
“Can we bottle her or something?” Jane said as she and Shalah rejoined the others.  
“She is quite energetic,” Daria stated with the closest thing Quinn had ever seen to playfulness.  
“Nah, I just wanted to know what she would look like in a bottle,” Jane countered enjoying Quinn’s look of discomfort.  
“Quinn are you volunteering your help with the social media aspect of getting The Spiral out there?” Daria asked as the unusual mix of surprise and gratitude for her sisters’ general support of her and Trent’s relationship reared its head for the first time.  
“Well….. Sure, he is your boyfriend.” Her succinct summarization seemed to pacify everyone and it really was as simple as that for her.  
“Thanks….. Daria’s sister,” Trent gave her a slight teasing.  
“You’re welcome….. Daria’s boyfriend,” she shot back at him.  
Both being relatively pleased with themselves, they continued talking over the ever growing ideas that Quinn had, while Daria joined Jane and Shalah.  
“So what’s the plan for today?” Daria approached them.  
“Thought that I would show Shalah around town.” Jane answered.  
“You mean the Pizza Place?”  
“Well there’s Dega Street and Lawndale High.”  
“I wasn’t aware that this was to be a deterrent expedition. So, do you guys want some company?”  
“Well sure,” Shalah agreed.  
“I thought that you and Trent had some hot and heavy plans for today,” Jane interjected.   
“He’s going to be wrapped up in Spiral stuff most of the afternoon and I’ll just catch up with him tonight.”   
“Okay. I’ll just go shower while you guys do what you do,” Jane mumbled as she left the room.


	18. Ted has a chat with Daria

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He had seen her come out of that store looking upset, so naturally he wanted to help her. Whatever had happened in there must have been something or maybe time had made her more susceptible for public display of emotions.  
She certainly had no problem showing them at the Zon when she let Trent paw her all over the place! Damn, cool it. Find out what’s wrong with her.  
“Oh, hi Tom,” Daria said noticing him suddenly at her side. She squared her shoulders in an attempt to shake off the funk of her previous conversation. “What are you doing down here? Slumming it?”  
He gave a low chuckle.  
“Hardly, I just needed to get away from the folks before the holiday set in too much. You ready for another Morgendorfer Thanksgiving?”  
“I’m actually looking forward to it,” she said honestly. “Dad is doing all of the cooking and Quinn, Aunt Amy, mom, and I are charged with setting up the Christmas tree. It should be an interesting time had by all.”  
“You’re not going to be with Trent?” he was genuinely surprised. He would have thought that they’d spend every waking moment together given the years of build-up that they had towards their relationship.  
“We have plans. They’re just….. private.” She answered feeling slightly uncomfortable discussing her current boyfriend with her past boyfriend.  
“Oh, of course you do,” he said with a tinge of bitterness.  
“I should go,” she moved past him.  
“Daria….. I’m sorry,” Tom caught up to her before she could get in her car. “Look, it’s cold and I am a little cranky, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”  
“What the heck is your problem anyway?” She shot at him angrily.  
“I’ve just been thinking lately….. About us.” He said quietly. “More like what happened between us.”  
“That was a long time ago Tom,” she stated. “I thought that we were trying to be friends, but if you can’t respect my relationship, then I don’t see how we can do that.”  
“It’s just….. I have a life too. I have a girlfriend and friends and things going on, but when I see you, everything else seems smaller in comparison. I miss who I was when I was with you and I think that you do too.”  
She looked at the hope in his eyes and knew that she couldn’t falter in being clear with him on things.  
“Tom, I am with Trent. I wanted to try and be friends with you, but I don’t want to give you the wrong idea. Sarah is a lovely girl. You should really try and get to know her and don’t push her away based on who we were in the past. I’m not the same person that I was and I don’t think that you are either. Maybe you just got caught up in the past and the good times that we had, but now’s the time to concentrate on the future.” Daria got in her car and left him then, hoping that he took her words to heart and wishing that she could call Jane to talk about it.

 

“Mom, dad, I’m home,” Daria announced as she entered the house. When no one answered, she sat and flipped the TV on.  
I need to talk to Trent about everything, but he’s busy with The Spiral stuff. I don’t want to distract him, but he will know something is wrong. Well maybe he can tell me what’s going on with Jane, cause I sure as heck don’t know.  
The ringing of her cellphone almost made her jump.  
“Hello.”  
“Daria, how’s it going?” Ted’s friendly voice came on the line.  
“Hi, Ted.” She said relieved.  
“I just wanted to check with you and make sure that tomorrow was okay with you?”  
“Tomorrow? Thanksgiving?”  
“I had a feeling you didn’t know. Your mother called and invited me to dinner. She was quite adamant.”  
Daria sighed as anger filled her.  
“It’s okay Ted. It would be good to see you, but what about your family?”  
“They are on a retreat. I declined. How are things with you and Trent?”  
“Actually, really good. The band is going to record. He is so excited. It looks like things are picking up for them. He deserves this.”  
“You sound proud.” Ted was intrigued by this side of her that this Trent seemed to bring out in her. They had been a nice fit for the time that they were together and he could tell that closeness to others didn’t come easy for her, they had that in common. Their relationship had been built on friendship and a mutual respect and honesty for one another that had turned into a genuine love. Throughout all of it, she had always exerted a cool, controlled demeanor, but this new relationship had softened her somehow.  
“I am proud of him. He has been working so hard. I just want him to be happy; he has earned it.”  
“Well, that’s great. Are you sure about tomorrow though?”  
“It’s fine. I’ll deal with my mother.”  
They ended their lines and Daria went upstairs.


	19. Thanksgiving with the Morgendorffer's

“Ted, how are you enjoying school?” Helen asked him as everyone ate the slightly strained, but delicious Thanksgiving meal that Jake had prepared.  
“It’s great. I am really interested in expanding my family’s company, so everything is pretty much helping me to do just that.” Ted answered after swallowing a forkful of the dressing. “This meal is really good.”  
“Dad made it,” Daria supplied with what would sound to anyone else like a simple supply of information, but Helen recognized it as a slight at having been bested in this whole dinner invite. Daria was resenting something that she perceived as Helen’s interference.  
“Yes, Jake did make dinner and it is quite palatable. A good team knows how to work together complementing one another and not relying on one person too heavily. A good team is made up of two strong individuals that come together and make up a formidable powerhouse,” she replied directing the last to Daria.   
“My thoughts exactly,” Daria looked at her mother unflinchingly in the longest stare off the spectators in the chairs surrounding the table had ever seen.  
“Quinn, how are you enjoying your college experience?” Ted asked trying to push past the two strong willed ladies in a deadlock of wills.  
“Oh, great. I am supposed to help out this new and upcoming designer at the beginning of the year. We’ve picked out all of these different fabrics and I even helped him to design some of the prints.”  
Quinn’s voice was on the border of being that same slightly higher, nervous pitch that she tended to get when she was worried. Daria looked at her sister and gave her as much of a reassuring smile as she could.   
“That sounds really interesting Quinn,” Amy picked up.  
“Oh look, I forgot to bring out the gravy. Helen could you help me?” Jake requested leaving the room with Helen behind him.  
“Why Helen? No- never mind why. We talked about this. It’s her life. She gets to live it. Trent is a nice young man.”   
She had never seen Jake so furious.  
“So is Ted. So was Tom. I just want her to make the right choices in life. I won’t apologize for wanting the best for my daughter,” Helen remained firm in her stance.  
“She’s not just your daughter and you have more than one.” Jake picked up the gravy boat and made to return to the dining room, but he paused. “Do you even know who Quinn is dating?” he left a momentarily stunned Helen in the kitchen. It was a few moments before she would rejoin her family.  
“…..and that’s why I will never go to that dorm again.” Quinn finished telling her story and was rewarded with chuckles from around the table.  
“Don’t stuff yourselves,” Helen announced, “we still have to decorate the tree later and Jake made some delicious smelling pies. Ted, you’re welcome to join us as well.”  
“He can have my spot.” Daria announced as she dug into the rest of her gravy laden dressing. “I have plans and since I won’t be staying here, I have to leave a bit earlier than I thought.” She didn’t have to look up to know that all eyes were on her.   
“You’re not staying?” Jakes voice was heavy with disappointment.  
“No dad. I’ve checked in at the lodge for the evening.” She knew that he didn’t like it, but he knew why. Everyone there knew why, so there was no need to explain. She looked at her father and silently tried to reassure him, but her lack of practice at doing so felt apparent.   
Dinner continued on with Quinn and Amy providing much of the conversation. Helen remained detached giving only monosyllabic responses, while Jake watched his wife and oldest daughter square of showing mirror images of one another.


	20. Coming clean......

Lane Residence   
“Hey,” he nudged her knee with his as he sat on the step beside her, “what’s wrong?” he knew before he’d even seen the wry smile that she gave him that something was on her mind.  
“I talked to Tom.” There was a long pause before she continued. “Now I think that I need to come clean with you.”  
She felt the slight tensing in him, but he remained silent.  
“Back when Tom and I were together our time consisted largely of making fun of everyone else and that was fine, except sometimes it got really mean….. about you guys.”  
Trent listened quietly and remained expressionless.  
“It made me recoil on the inside every time, but I still didn’t say anything about it. I would agree with my silence and that would only perpetuate the misconception that I agreed with whatever he was saying. I didn’t mind the slights about the school or the people in it, but I guess that I always assumed that he knew that you guys were off limits, but then I said nothing….. so I’m just as guilty.” She remained looking straight ahead the shame clearly written on her features as she spoke. “I just let it continue, figuring that he would get tired of it and he did ease up, but not entirely. There would be snide remarks whenever I talked to Jane and it got to be so suffocating that I didn’t dare talk about you at all.”  
“So why are you telling me all of this now?”  
She turned to face him then and cautiously cradled the side of his face with her hand.  
“I want the simplistic honesty back that we use to have. I never want to feel like I’m keeping things from you and I never want you to think that I have been anything other than honest with you.”  
Those eyes….. They always get to me.  
“You’re not the only person to have done or said something that they regret in life Daria.” It was a gentle observation.  
“Not you. You’ve always been straight with me and everyone else. People like you. You are who you are.”  
“Don’t put me on a pedestal Daria. That’s a fall that I don’t think that I could recover from,” his voice was even and his words were a simple truth.  
“I just like that you don’t compromise who you are and that you’re always honest with me.”  
He kissed the palm of the hand that cradled his face.  
“The thing is, I am human, just like you. I have made more than my fair share of mistakes and I will make more. I’m nowhere near perfect and I don’t expect for you to be perfect either.” He stood and drew her into his arms. “Stop beating yourself up.”  
She tried to shift her eyes away, but he wouldn’t let her.  
“Okay?”  
She nodded.  
“How was Thanksgiving dinner?” Trent asked absently as he kissed the side of her neck in slow languid kisses.  
“Ah…. Dinner?” She wanted to lose herself in this incredibly precious moment.  
“Yeah, how did your dad do?” He paused to mimic the same routine on the other side of her neck.   
“…..mm…..great but,” she made him look her in the eyes again.  
Dear god he’s gorgeous.  
She shook her head to focus a bit.   
“My mother invited Ted over.”  
He didn’t say anything, but he did stop what he was doing and kept her in his arms with his face still buried in her neckline.  
“The dinner itself tasted great, though. Dad really did a good job.” She ran her hands through the softness of his hair lightly grazing his scalp every now and then.  
“How is Ted?” there was something in Trent’s voice that she’d never heard from him before.   
“He was fine. It did get a little dicey for a while between me and my mother though. I thought that she would have a fit when I told her that I wouldn’t be staying at home. She played it cool though and didn’t say anything.”  
“How’d you leave things with her?”  
“I just left.”   
“She just wants what’s best for you.”  
She gently coaxed him so that their eyes could once again connect even in the dim street lamp.  
“Then she would want you.” She swallowed the lump of nervousness that had formed in her throat as it so often did when her emotions were involved. “I’m staying at The Lodge tonight and I thought that you might join me?”  
“To be so smart, you ask some pretty not smart questions,” He said around an enticing smile. He hugged her tightly and picked her up in the process.  
“Trent!” she yelped in surprise.   
He kissed her hard then. Anything else that she might have said was effectively cut off.


	21. Trent, Daria...... it had to happen

I hope that he doesn’t think that this is one of my stage outfits, I bought this with him in mind. I hope he likes red….. Or maybe I should wear the black. Damn, I sound like such a – a- girl! So glad that I had a little time to prepare while he brought dessert over. Okay, just remember that this is something you both want and there is nothing to be nervous about. Tonight is about us and how we feel. Just go with your instinct.  
“Daria?” Trent’s voice came from the other room.  
Glad he remembered to get his key card from the front desk.  
“I’ll be there in a minute,” she called out in a voice that was meant to be cool, calm, and completely relaxed.  
She emerged from the adjoining bath to find that he was sitting on the sofa looking at the fire that she had started. It wasn’t his usual relaxed reclining position, he was sitting a bit straighter, more alert and even though his eyes went to her when she came in the room, he remained seated. She walked towards him and smiled ever so slightly seeing the slightly dampened hair at the nape of his neck as she neared him and the change of clothes signaling that he’d showered. He wore one of his soft green tees and a pair of his faded jeans with the worn knee.  
Guess he was a little nervous too.  
“Hey.”  
“Hey.”  
She was standing before him now.  
I hope that I didn’t make a mistake in wearing this.  
“I always did like that nightshirt. Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, right?”  
“Yeah, it’s an American classic.”   
Funny how a few words from him could put me at ease.  
He slowly rose and as he did so he allowed his fingertips to trace a path from her knees to her upper thighs and then to rest on her hips. He looked down at her admiring her features and how they were enhanced by the firelight before urging her forward to press against him when he kissed her. He could feel her arms pulling him closer, allowing her feminine scent to fill his nostrils. He wanted- no, he needed for her to feel his desire and understand how it mirrored hers. His thumbs rimmed the satin string on her hips and segued around to cup her behind. Hearing the soft moan when their lips parted, made him grind against her as the need for more filled him. His hands went up her back causing her to arch at his touch. She took a step back and for the briefest of moments he thought that she may have changed her mind, but she had moved to discard of her comfortable and familiar nightshirt. She stood before him wearing a red satin demi cut bra that pushed her breasts forward while revealing more skin than anything that she had and it’s matching red thong. She took a step back to him and was immediately caught up in another kiss. She more than willingly melted into his arms and kisses, allowing her hands to roam over his back and toss his tee aside, as he gently bit down on the vee of her shoulder and neck, whilst her fingers dug into his back. He stopped and looked at her with a roguish smile before bringing his lips back to hers. It wasn’t just kissing, it was two people trying to taste every inch of one another’s mouth as their hands scrambled to do the same things with the rest of their bodies. At some point he was aware of her hands undoing his jeans and shoving them as far as down as she could without breaking their lips connection. He was happy to help the process along by stepping out of them as well as his shoes. His hands cupped her bottom again and lifted her slightly. She responded by wrapping her legs around his waist and he continued their kiss as he carried her to the bed. His touch was surprisingly gentle as he laid her on the bed and undid the front clasp bra. The combination of feeling his hands and lips on her breasts made her breath catch and she automatically arched her back needing more. Her hands were in his hair and on his shoulder and when she felt one of his hands travel down past her navel to stroke her between the legs, the hand on his shoulder tightened. He continued to tease each breast in turn while applying a steady rhythm with his fingers. She moaned loving every moment.  
“Trent-“ she panted softly.  
He looked at her.  
“…..I need you in me.”   
It wasn’t a command and it wasn’t a plea, but it was tinged with the essence of both. His smirk and passion darkened eyes spoke a story of understanding. He discarded his boxer briefs, taking a moment to put on protection, and admired the way she easily slipped out of the thong that she’d been wearing. He rejoined her on the bed and looked down at the beauty that was her body. She looked up at this man that she had admired from a distance as a teenager and had grew to love as a woman. No words were necessary as their bodies joined in a way that was primal and right. The once friends and now lovers spent the evening learning and knowing one another in a new and exciting way, thus starting another chapter in their lives.


	22. Afterwards......

She looks so peaceful lying there. Hair tousled, thick lashes fanning the top of her cheeks with her closed lids, lips slightly parted as though awaiting a kiss….. Don’t do it man, enjoy this. She could be feeling completely different once she opens her eyes and the reality of last night’s events set in. …..Nah….. She has to feel the same as me. Everything was exactly as it should have been. It felt right between us. The way she looked at me….. She could see me for who I am and who I want to be and she still didn’t run screaming into the night. I’m a lucky sob….. and also a hungry sob….. We still have some dessert left, I think….. Did we eat all of it after the second time? I know that we talked about eating it after the last time…..  
Trent couldn’t help the smile that seemed to plaster itself across his face as memories of their time together flashed before him. The way her body met his with a completeness that he was not used to or the way she touched him with a delicate firmness. He was particularly reminiscent of the sounds in particular, for they told of a melodic, eroticism of their own. He thought he would never hear a sound sweeter than the sound of his name in a breathless pant being chanted like a mantra from her lips. He glanced at the bed with longing for a moment before hurrying to gather the remains of their dessert from the little room fridge.

Mmm… I feel so….. Deliciously sated…. I never want to leave this space…. Hey, where is he?  
Her eyes fluttered open when she felt the empty space beside her.  
Did he leave? Surely he isn’t having regrets? I have been known to misread a situation…… no way. We- everything with us felt right. Still, if he left then something must-  
“Didn’t mean to wake you,” Trent’s voice broke her thoughts. He brought the plate of half eaten chocolate cake and berries over on the tray that he’d liberated from a flower arrangement. “I thought that we could use something to eat.”  
“Yeah,” she shifted the covers so that the sheet was now covering her previously exposed bosom, “I am feeling rather peckish.”  
He sat the tray on the bed and climbed in behind her so that he could wrap his body around hers. He fed her a grape first, then she broke a piece of the chocolate cake and fed it to him with her fingers. He took his time making sure that he licked each one of her fingers in turn. He kissed her shoulder blade as they fed one another, taking note of the way her fingers traced a maddening pattern on his thigh.  
“You know,” she watched him take another exaggerated lick from her index finger this time as she spoke, “There is a continental breakfast downstairs…..”  
He raised a brow at her over the wrist that he had just kissed.  
“Or we could order in room service…..”  
He let her fall back onto the bed and hovered over her with a lustful smile.  
“I’d rather eat out…..” he then proceeded to do exactly that to both their delights…..  
They stayed in the room until they had to leave on Saturday. Daria silently cursed herself for agreeing to help Barry out. She hadn’t realized how hard it would be to actually leave Trent, even for a short time. She did plan on coming back for a much more extended Christmas break, but that seemed so far away now. After that first evening, they had pretty much silently agreed that they wouldn’t be moving from the room unless absolutely necessary. Their time consisted of making love, showering together (which led to more love making), and eating. Everything seemed so much more and concerns about feeling smothered or inadequacies were benign for them both. The time seemed to flee from them and Saturday when they bade each other farewell it was with the sweet promise of a kiss of things to come that they parted upon. 

The knock at the door roused Trent from the lyrics that he was working on. He was feeling his creative juices going into overdrive and he knew that it was in large part due to Daria and their growing relationship. Everything was definitely worth the wait, he thought. They had done things on their terms and they were rock solid. Kind of early for Jesse on a Saturday, he thought opening the door.  
“Hello Trent…..” Helen Morgendorffer stood in her perfectly pressed powerhouse blue Chanel suit. “Can I have a word with you?”  
He gestured for her to come in and she followed him to the den where they would talk.


	23. Reassurances

“Hey,” he said as he sat on the edge of his bed to talk to her.  
“Hey,” she was eager to see him. This was their first real conversation since she’d left Lawndale and she was eager to tell him about her final performance and the good news that she had picked up two extra writing assignments at the paper. They were small, but they were response articles that the new owner was trying out in print and online, and if it worked out, then that would mean a much more lucrative position as well as exposure for her writing. They faced each other for their face talk time.  
“What’s wrong?” Daria took one look at him and all other thoughts were secondary. She became immediately concerned. He was sitting on the edge of the bed with his hands clasped and there was something in his eyes….. Worry. “Tell me.”   
“For some reason I thought us getting together would be the hardest part of all of this.....” He ran a hand through his hair before looking back at her. “I never wanted to mess things up for you, that’s one of the reasons that I never pursued you before. I didn’t want to screw it up for either of us. I thought that now that I was getting my life together and making changes….. But it’s not enough.”  
“Trent,” Daria needed for him to tell her what was going on with him, “what has happened?”  
“Have I messed up your plans for school or your future?”  
“Of course not- You’ve spoken to my mother.” Daria’s anger was put on hold when she saw how genuinely worried Trent was. “I am maintaining my grades quite well Trent and doing so nicely. Truth be told I believe it’s because of you….. Of us. Everything just seems to fit so well.”  
He smiled at her weakly.  
Look at her. Helen should really give her more credit. She’s not just book smart and we didn’t just randomly hook up. We were friends first and we’ve always had respect and affection for one another. Of course, Helen’s problem isn’t necessarily with her, it’s me.  
“Maybe we should-“  
“Don’t do that,” she cut him off. “We’ve waited so long and now we’re finally together. We didn’t get pushed into anything and there was no match making. It was us. We wanted it and we made it happen. Don’t tell me that after one conversation with my mother, you would give up on us.” Her heart seemed to beating so loud that she was certain that he could hear it too.  
“Never,” he said with a fierceness in his eyes. “…..But there was talk and various scenarios of you giving up on everything that you want in life only to end up supporting me with a receding hairline and a house full of kids with a minimum wage part time job. I tell you, that image got to me. I want more for you. I want to be the kind of man that you can count on without question.”  
She pushed her glasses back up on her nose feeling ill at ease with Helen poking around in her private life.  
“Trent Lane,” she had to still herself so that she didn’t lose it and become an overly emotional ninny while talking to him, “you are the kindest, most thoughtful, and considerate person that I know. You always take other people’s feelings into consideration, sometimes without regard to how it might affect you. You have made changes in your life to better yourself for you and that can only help us. I am so proud of all that you are doing. Can’t you see that you are the kind of man that I can and have always been able to count on?” She looked at him in earnest wishing that she could be there with him in person.  
“I just don’t want you to have regrets,” he still looked worried.  
“Don’t let my mother, or anyone come between us. I like where we are, don’t you?”  
He gave a genuine smile at that thought.  
“Never thought I would hear that from you about us, but yeah. We are in such a good place. I really like this.”  
“So don’t let her get under your skin okay?” Daria asked knowing that her mother’s tactics in the courtroom were not child’s play. She could be very persuasive.   
“How was your day?” he changed the subject to something that was hopefully a much cheerier subject.   
She relayed her news to him and though the worry didn’t completely leave his eyes, he did seem closer to normal. He watched the way she talked about the possibilities for the online and print articles with such pride. She was taking off doing something that she loved; that was a huge thing for her. She could have easily gone into any field and flourished financially, but when she wrote or spoke about writing she was at home. That’s where she felt like herself. It’s were everything fit together for her. She’d found something that many search for most of their lives; she had found her sanctuary, her peace.   
“What about you?” she’d asked him after relaying her info.  
“Spiral’s got some gigs coming up in two weeks- three. The last one will be just outside the city near you and Jane. Thought I might come up for a visit if it doesn’t mess with your schedule or anything,” he said rather sheepishly.   
“You know better than that,” she said softly. “Just let me know when you will be in and we’ll plan from there.”  
“Did Jane act weird to you when she was here?’ he asked remembering the weird vibe that he’d gotten from them before.  
“We worked it out. I think that she realized that sometimes having a sister isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” Daria explained to his questioning look.  
“….. I’m glad you two are okay then.”  
“Me too. What about us?” she was hesitant.  
“We’re more than okay.” He leaned into the camera, “We’re fuckin’ rock solid.” There seemed to be a light in his eyes as though he had just realized something and was eager to act on it.   
“Trent?”  
“Don’t worry, I just thought of something is all. I should let you go and do your homework and stuff.”  
“Okay…..” she reached to flip the off switch, but his voice stopped her.  
“Daria?” she looked back at him on the screen. “I will never give up on us.”  
She smiled back at the old familiar smirk that he wore, now tinged with confidence.  
“Me either,” she agreed.   
They gave one another a meaningful look before switching off their respective screens.


	24. Helen Pays a Visit

“Hello dear,” Helen said entering her daughters apartment.   
“Mother,” Daria returned becoming immediately alert from the unannounced visit.  
“What’re you doing here?”  
“Honestly I don’t know why you’re so suspicious and after the lovely chat that I had with your- with Trent.”  
Daria closed the door.  
“Chat?” That’s what you call trying to guilt him into breaking up with me?”  
“If he’s done nothing wrong, then he shouldn’t feel guilty. Now, sit.” She patted the seat next to her on the sofa. Daria chose the chair that was directly across from where her mother sat.   
“I've been reviewing my retirement and in doing so I have had to revise the financial situation for the household. Now, while the money set aside for your school in fine, but any extras however will simply have to go.”  
“Extras? Like what?”  
“Well this apartment for one thing. Why did you leave the safety of campus anyway?”  
“It’s actually cheaper for me to live off campus remember? We talked about it.”  
“Well maybe on paper, but you can’t put a price on my piece of mind- the dorms will be much better.”  
“You mean because I would have a roommate and there would be less of a chance for Trent and I to see each other?”  
“Well there is that, but this mean that you can put your focus on your work and be successful in whatever you want to do in your life.”  
“My grades are all still four point status, so this is just bull.”  
“You’ll also have to pay your own car insurance too,” she continued ignoring her daughter’s words.   
Daria drew herself in. She knew that her mother wasn’t playin’ around.  
“And don’t go running to your father about this he has no say. I handle the financial aspect of things. You will have enough for school and I suggest that you use what you earn for insurance and your career wardrobe that will come sooner than you think. I wouldn’t squander it trying to return home for visits, your father and I will be happy to come and pick you up when you have your breaks.  
She looked at her mother sitting there trying to put a good face on something so ugly.  
There’s just no talking to her.  
“How long do I have?”   
“January.”  
“That’s only a month!”  
“It begins the new quarter, so no time like the present. I just came from the school; it’s all been arranged.”  
“You have plenty of time. This place isn’t that big. I’ll even come back with you after Christmas and help you finish. I bet Quinn would help and of course your father would.”  
Seriously mom?  
“No.”  
Helen blinked.  
“You really have no choice dear. You’ll see that it’s for the best.”  
“I’m not moving. This place- is mine.”  
“No, it’s not.” Helen stood with purse in hand and went to the door. “Just do this and let things happen smoothly. I promise that you will understand one day.” With those words said, she left.  
Daria considered several scenarios that flipped through her head, but dismissed them each since they would more likely than not, get her arrested. Finally she picked up the phone and called her best friend. 

“Well you know that you can share space with me,” Jane said hearing Daria’s dilemma.  
“Thanks, but your place is set for you and that’s great. I don’t want to mess with that. We just got back on track. I don’t want to mess with that. I can’t lose you again.”  
“First, you never lost me and second we’re family. If I can put up with Wind going all big brother on me after all of these years, then I can deal with you using the spare room.”  
“That’s your room for your are-“  
“Actually, Shalah is letting me use that loft that she uses as an oversized closet. It has great light and room for my bigger sculptures.”  
“Jane-“  
“What does Trent say?” Jane asked over Daria’s objections.  
“I called you first. I don’t want him to feel responsible, just because my mother is being unreasonable.”  
“Mmm….. He’s grown remember?”  
“I know that, but Helen has already had a ‘talk’ with him.”  
Jane frowned into the phone.  
“So it’s settled, you move in here with me.”  
“I do have another option.” Daria stated quietly.  
“Do tell,” Jane inquired.  
“The Cabin.”  
“But you’ll lose money if you cash out early.” Jane knew that Daria had been pouring almost every cent that she had saved into a fund that would mature just before graduation and be enough to have the cabin that she’d always wanted. Jane had even chipped in whenever she could, with the proviso being that she would have her own private area. They had spent time going over blueprints that Jane had sketched out years ago and from time to time they’d revisited it and make changes here and there.  
“I would take the loss, since it’s my idea-“  
“That’s not what I meant. Stay with me goofball. Face it, life with me in it on a daily basis will be nothing short of fun.”  
Daria smiled into the phone.  
“Let me think about it okay? And thanks Jane.”  
“Anytime kid.”  
They hung up their respective phones both thinking over this latest event.


	25. I Needed This......

“Hey,” Daria opened the door and wanted to fling herself into his tattooed arms when she saw him standing there.  
“Hey.” She looked like she was as sick as the time she’d been in the hospital, he thought.  
“Will you two move so that I can go inside,” Jane demanded from behind her brother.  
“Why’s she so cranky?” Daria asked amused as Jane stomped past and went directly to the kitchen.  
Trent laughed quietly at Jane before explaining that Jesse had eaten her very ‘perfect’ sandwich on the ride over.  
“I should have some bread. You can make anoth-“ she was cut off by Jane reentering the rom and shooting her death glares.  
“Don’t worry, Jesse went to that grocery down the road to get some stuff for another one.” Trent explained to Daria. “He felt terrible Janey; you know he just had that ‘situation’.” Trent said to his sibling.  
“Maybe he ate her sandwich,” She said under her breathe and sat down with a pout.  
Before they could say anything further Jesse was back and hurried in carrying two heavily laden bags of things.  
“What’d you do buy out the deli?” Trent looked at the stuff and knew that Jesse had spent way more than the amount he’d given him.  
“They had a sale,” Jesse half mumbled. “Come on and show me how to do this man,” he said to his friend.  
“Oh, no. They have to talk. I will tell you exactly what I want,” Jane jumped between the two men and directed Jesse to the kitchen, where she sat on the counter and watched as Jesse took great care in laying everything out. Jane felt a twinge of guilt over not speaking to him during the ride. “Sorry I was such a brat to you before.”  
“It’s okay.” He retrieved the lightly toasted bread and followed her instructions on how to layer everything.

“She shouldn’t have brought you here. I’m okay,” Daria said to Trent once Jesse and Jane were in the other room. They were still standing; He took her hands in his and pulled her into his arms.  
“You’re stuck with me woman.” His eyes held a playful tenderness meant to allay her worries. “We’ll figure something out. Four heads are better than one.”  
“It’s not your problem though.” She covered his protest with her delicate hand. “My mother is the cause of all this. She wants to control my life.”  
“She just loves you…..”  
“Why do you sound like you’re on her side? I’m sure that your mother wouldn’t go for this kind of thing.”  
“No, she’d have to take time away from her artistic impulses for that,” he somberly sated. “I’ve got some money- not much, that I’d started saving when I got that job during the summer when you guys were in Paris. I also have some gigs coming up with good pay so that should help too.”  
“I can’t do that to you,” she was so moved by his generous offer, but he’d worked hard for that money. “I can do this. It just sucks that my mother will be getting her way.”  
“Why don’t you just move in with Jane and rent the dorm room out to someone?” Jesse said as he and Jane reentered the room.  
“That’s against the rules,” Jane said and everyone looked at her.  
“What? Someone should point it out…..not that we care.” She continued eating her sandwich once she had joined Jesse on the couch.  
“That’s a good idea Jesse,” Daria said warming up to the idea. “But how do I find someone to go along with it?” she mused aloud.  
“Leave that to me,” Jane said after swallowing. “I know of a few artsy types that are in need of refuge.”  
“Huh?”  
“Classmates. Now that we have settled that crisis, does anyone else have anything that they need help with?”  
“You seem to have all of the answers today,” Trent remarked as he took a seat in a nearby chair and tugged a moderately resistant Daria down into his lap with him.  
“I feel that I should give back as much as I can before I become corrupted by my impending wealth and all that it entails.”  
“Impending wealth?” Daria tried, unsuccessfully, to ignore the finger that Trent was using to trace a pattern in the small of her back.  
“Yeah, didn’t I tell you? I submitted my sculpture for this huge art exhibit and I was notified, via email, that I have made it to the semi-finals. So by this time next week, I will be rolling in fame and fortune. Just be glad that you will be able to say that you knew me when.” She continued eating her sandwich and sipping on the drink that Jesse handed her in between.  
“Well, Jesse was the one that actually came up with subletting suggestion,” Daria pointed out.  
“Yes, my genius tends to rub off on those around me,” Jane said in her usual sarcastic manner and playfully punched Jesse in the shoulder. She reached down, grabbed the remote, flicked on the TV, and surfed the channels until finding something that pretty much suited them all.  
The quartet enjoyed one another’s company and made plans to attend the bands gigs while catching up on all the details in one another’s lives. It was something that each of them had missed and whether they knew it or not, they needed it. Their comrade felt even stronger and each knew that they could draw off of the strengths of the other.


	26. Really......!?

“What are you doing here?”  
“We need to talk.”  
“We have talked and I thought that I made myself clear.” After just getting her head on straight with her mother’s untimely visit, she really did not want to deal with this- with him. Besides, she hadn’t enjoyed their last encounter; it had made her very uncomfortable.  
“You did. Now it’s my turn.”  
“Fine.” She crossed her arms and looked at him unflinchingly. Seeing Trent and spending time with him and Jane and Jesse had helped her to regain her sense of self. They were a good equilibrium for her.   
“Could we go in and-“  
“No, you wanted to talk. So talk.” She crossed her arms and looked at him with growing impatience.  
Really? You don’t trust me enough to go inside? Oh- guess not.  
He looked down at her. Even with the anger flush washing her features and lightning bolt looks that were eyes, she was still the most alluring woman that he’d ever met.  
“You say that you didn’t like who you when you were with me, but how would I know that? You never said anything. We could have talked about it and figured something out, but you just resented me and let that come between us. All of that time and you were just pining for him…..” The anger that had welled up within him, just as quickly subsided as her face came back in focus. He waved off any protest that she may have made and continued to speak. “I didn’t say that it was a conscious decision, but his presence was always there, especially when it came to us going any further than kissing. It’s like there’s this wall that would go up with a DO NOT ENTER permanently stamped on it. So I backed off and what do you know, the next guy that you talked to and bam,” he snapped his fingers, “you gave it up to him. Imagine my surprise when I found out that you two were that close-“ he looked at her scathingly with a bit of anger returning to his eyes, “you must have had a real good laugh at what a chump I was panting behind you all of those- these years. Then you went to Lawndale before going to Paris and broke up with that guy- guess he couldn’t compete either, but he did get further than me. I figured that would have been my chance- our chance, but once again you were caught up in some stupid writer’s fantasy about you and him. Then one night I saw you- at a strip joint no less. Imagine my surprise when I found out from the manager that you had been talking to, that you were working there. I had to see what I’d been missing and you didn’t disappoint. “His eyes flicked over her entirety with a definitive leer that would make the worst of some of the guys that frequented the club look like boy scouts. “The way you moved on stage, it was like you were dancing only for me. I spent the better part of my allowance on your shows. Oh, I knew that it was for him, but a guy can dream can’t he?” The smile that he gave reminded her of teenage Tom with a charm that she had found so attractive once upon a time. “Then, after a long night of drinking I came up with a brilliant plan to get you both to sever ties with one another. He’d always put you on some untouchable pedestal, just like you did to him. So I figured that I would do you both a favor and disillusion you. The fates seemed to be on my side that night when I saw Trent. From there it was only a matter of getting him to the club and letting him see you. The joke was on me though, ‘cause it just pushed you two together.” He gave a harsh self-depreciating laugh. “See, I thought that he’d be so disgusted that his perfect little muse would soil herself that he’d tell you some harsh truths and then you would turn to someone that understood and accepted you for who you are.”  
THIS GUY!  
“Meaning you, right?” Daria took a moment to really look at Tom. There was no longer a trace of the wisecracking handsome young man that had nearly cost her the dearest relationships that she’d ever known. No, he was gone now. In his place was this cold and cruel person that apparently didn’t know her at all. “We didn’t work out. Get over it!” she yelled angrily. She turned, unlocked her door and entered her apartment. Tom stood on the steps a few moments more before slowly, painfully turning and going to his car. He lit a cigarette and took a long draw as he lamented on his failed relationships with Daria.  
Can’t change the past and as for us, there is no future, he thought cranking the shiny Lexus. He took a longing look at her door and thought: ‘You’ll always be my favorite regret’ before peeling out into the streets.


	27. I'll be home for Christmas.....?

“Christmas won’t be the same without you honey,” Jake said over the phone. “You know if you need some gas money-“  
There was a time when Daria would have jumped at the opportunity to get some cash from the parental units, but since her mother’s visit, well it changed the whole dynamic of their competitive, nature of outwitting one another. It had tainted things somehow.  
“I’ve got extra assignments at work and I’ll be real busy moving back into the dorms too.” She tried her best to skim over what her mother was doing; there was no way that she wanted to be the cause of any dissention in her parents relationship.  
“But sweetie it’s Christmas. Our family has always been together every Christmas. I’m planning on cooking this huge meal and I was gonna get Trent to help and of course Jane is invited. I wanted us to have a huge family meal, like the kind I never had growing up.”  
No fair dad.  
“I-“  
“Quinn will be bringing her boyfriend too. In fact, invite Trent’s band while you’re at it. It’ll be neat!”  
“I don’t think mom will-“  
“It’ll give her a chance to warm up to the idea of you and Trent and not let her grill Quinn and her boyfriend. Come on honey.”  
I really don’t want to see Mom though. This would be a good way to make her see that I will not end my relationship with Trent because of her bullying and he won’t have to worry about spending money on gas to come and see me so soon after his gig.  
“Let me talk it over with Jane and Trent. No promises though,” she added quickly hearing his emphatic ‘Yes’ before hanging up the phone.

 

“Tell me again exactly why you didn’t tell your dad about your mother’s wrong doings?” Jane asked as she dug into the Chinese take-out and sat cross-legged on the bed across from Daria.  
Daria shifted straightening her legs from where she’d been sitting with them tucked beneath her.  
“I don’t want to be the reason that they argue…..not again.”  
“I thought that you worked out that whole refrigerator box thing with them way back when.”  
“I did- we did, but it doesn’t change the fact that they did argue about me. I know that it’s because they loved me, but I don’t want that anymore. I would like my parent’s relationship to be- to stay- to-“  
“I get it, but you are their daugh7bc80f2c80 ter and parents disagree about their children all the time. It doesn’t have to mark the beginning of the end or anything.”  
“I just don’t want to be the reason…..”  
“You’re afraid aren’t you?” Jane mused aloud. “You think that you’ll jinx how well your relationship is going with Trent by saying something to your dad and possibly messing with his and Helen’s relationship.”  
“Well it sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud.” Daria snorted. She knew that logic was pretty much out the window on this, but she couldn’t help how she felt. She was happy, really happy in every other aspect, so if she had to jump through some hoops to appease her mother, then so be it.  
“You don’t have to suffer to be happy Daria.”  
“Look, we have a plan in place with me living here with you and you finding someone to stay in my dorm room as a cover. Let’s just concentrate on that.”  
“Okay, but your parents took the job of being a parent and all the stuff that comes with it. They protect you and sometimes they won’t agree, but their relationship with each other is different from their roles as parents.”  
They had a moment of contemplative silence before Jane spoke.  
“I did find someone to stay in your spot by the way. She is a sculptor and if anyone comes by unannounced, she’ll say that she is supposed to meet us there for coffee or something. Then she will call us. She is also paying enough to cover your portion of the rent with a little left over for groceries.”  
“Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but why wouldn’t she just get her own place?”  
“She was staying with her boyfriend, but they broke up. She says that she wants to focus on school and not get distracted again.”  
“And who are we not to profit from her misfortune.”  
“Why are you determined to be a martyr? You two have problems that can be fixed. Why not benefit from this?”  
“Sorry, sorry. I’m actually really grateful for everything that you’re doing to help me. I just don’t want to jinx anything.”  
“Don’t think so much. Mush moo?” Jane offered the container to her friend.  
“It’s called Mu Shu and no thanks, I am good with the Lo Mein here. You know we’ll have to hash out the utilities situation too. How can you afford this place anyway?”  
“I dated the guy whose uncle owns the building. The rent is income based and normally for the elderly, but there was an opening and I just slid right in. It’s all just some big right off for them anyway.”  
“So how are you and Anthony doing?”  
“We’re good. We should make plans to go to go out and do something together. You know him, me, and you.”  
“I don’t think-“  
“Aw, come on. He’s someone that I am dating and you are my best friend. I would like it if you would get to know him a bit.”  
“It’ll be weird, besides Trent isn’t here and-“  
“Seriously? You’re gonna be that girl?”  
“No, I’m not. I just would feel, I don’t know really awkward or something.”  
“It’s not a big deal unless you make it one.” Jane informed her friend. “Look if it makes you feel any better, you can bring someone along, as long as my brother approves of course,” she added with a saccharin sweet smile.  
“Trent and I are solid,” Daria announced with a security that was new to her, but felt very familiar and comforting. It was of course the feeling that she’d always had with Trent.  
“Mm…. just make sure that you run it past him. I’m not saying that you need his permission, just do him the courtesy is all.” Jane suggested and raised her hands in defense at the ire raised in her friends’ eyes at her suggestion.  
“Of course I’ll let him know what I’ll be doing. Have you told him who you’re seeing?”  
“Why spoil the surprise?”  
“Jane…..”  
“Look, they will be back in town for their gigs this weekend and I will tell him then. I offered up the place for the fellows to stay, but it’ll just be Jesse and Trent. Nick is staying with a cousin and Max is meeting up with Stacy. I figured that you wouldn’t mind being hostess to my brother and Jesse can take the couch.”  
“Okay, it’s your thing so …..”  
Sometimes Daria really marveled at how freely Jane seemed to live her life without fear of consequences. She seemed to delight in the fast paced frenzy of it all, while Daria wanted to approach things with an almost painful degree of caution.  
“So where is Shalah?” Daria asked around a mouthful of food.  
“Duncan leaves today, so I imagine that they are….. Saying their goodbyes.”  
I know what that smirk means. Some things never change.  
The two ladies continued their lunch and conversation and enjoyed one another’s company until Jane had to leave and find Shalah to make sure that she wasn’t somewhere depressed with a vat of ice cream or something. Their friendship only strengthened and Jane was glad that they’d hashed out the whole Robin thing.


	28. Wanna make a movie?

“Where is everyone?” Trent asked Daria as he plopped down on the sofa. They had just gotten done moving the last of her things in and he thought that everyone would want to eat and catch a movie or something, but they had pretty much disappeared.   
“Jane is on a date and Shalah left with Jesse.” She answered from what was now her bedroom. “Do you think that you help me with something?”  
“Sure, what is it?” he asked absently as he flicked the TV off and stood to go and help her. He stopped short when he saw her framed in the doorway to her room. Her petite frame wore her old high school outfit, only- it was definitely a better fit now. She’d replaced her old boots with some kind of stacked heel that were like an amped up version of the Martins that she used to sport and it contoured to the curvature of the calves that he had been so enamored with when he’d first met her. He let his eyes travel on up taking in the extensive amount of thigh that the skirt left exposed. It barely covered her personals. On up to the green jacket that she’d left open to expose her navel that housed what he knew to be a fake navel ring, then, to his delight, more flesh. A flash of orange lace from one of the bra cups that was semi exposed, then on to the unadorned neck that seemed to be begging for him to kiss it and up to settle on the delicate features of her beautiful face that wore with those glasses that magnified the eyes that seemed to see through to his soul. He didn’t notice the camera in her hand until he was standing right before her.  
Okay Morgendorffer…. My fantasy, your game.   
“Want to make a movie?”  
The lascivious expression that came across his face matched the one that she wore.  
“Enter…..” she turned away and he watched as she gave an exaggerated swing to her hips leading him into the room. She motioned for him to come no further when he made to follow her to where she’d went in a specific corner of the room. She positioned the camera to her liking and turned back to him. As she took each step towards him she would change the position of how the jacket was on her. First step, one hand on hip to expose one side. Second step, other hand on hip to expose the other side. Third step, both hands on hips to expose the entirety of the lace orange balconette bra with the molded cups, well what little there were of the cups. She stood before him like a dream come to life in superwoman pose looking at him with mischievous eyes backlit with fiery passion that he knew all too well. “I have it angled so that it films this part of the room,” she gestured to where she meant. “The camera is over there and doesn’t start recording until I press the play button and the red light goes on, so stop and no light will be on when it’s done recording. Any questions?”  
And risk breaking this mood? Hell, naw!  
He shook his head. She reached beside him and picked up the remote on the bed and pressed record. His hands went to the jacket and assisted in letting it slide down her arms and hit the floor. While this was happening, she’d let her head fall back so that the thick silken locks of hair now hung almost touching her backside. This also allowed her throat to be arched baring its creaminess to Trent, who felt like every bit of the wolf about to devour Red, in the very best way that he could think of.  
Thank you merciful one. She is-  
When she raised her head back up the look in his eyes could only be described as dangerous- and she liked- loved it. She reached out to remove the tee shirt that he wore, exposing the lean swimmers physic that he’d acquired from whenever he’d workout with Jesse. She ran a hand over the span of his chest. She’d been watching him help move things all day and every time he would lift his shirt to wipe his sweat drenched face or when he took a long drink from the icy cold water that she’d bring him, she had wanted to do nothing more than rip every stitch of clothing off of him and have her way with him right then and there. So when she’d found her old outfit in one of her boxes, she’d made a few modifications and decided to play on a fantasy that he had mentioned. Then with her eyes locked on him, she unbuttoned his jeans. She sank to her knees and unzipped them with her teeth, while giving a smirk. Her hands made good use of themselves by sliding the jeans and boxer briefs off.   
HO- LY, Fu-   
He wanted to buckle from the pleasure, but the connection of their eyes (and unwillingness to let it end) held him to his sublime position. Watching as she proceeded to make him feel as though he were in heaven on earth, his hands found his way into her hair and assisted with guiding her and keeping the perfect rhythm that she had already established. He could feel his normally subdued alpha male come fully into its own, the higher that he climbed on this incredible wave that she’d started. He pulled her to her feet and swiftly put her on the bed. She lay back in the crush orange bra with her skirt flipped up to expose her bare bottom. He hovered over her and kissed her roughly on the lips and continued down the front of her body stopping briefly to gently kiss around the ‘belly ring’ remembering briefly their piercing escapade. The hunger for her returned even more fiercely and he continued his trail downward. Her hands gripped his hair almost painfully when his tongue took its first dive in.   
That’s right, enjoy yourself sweetheart.  
“Trent,” she panted. “Oh-“  
He stopped and brought his lips back to hers, then looked into her passion filled eyes and surprised her by cupping the sensitive area that he’d just been partaking of.  
“Mine,” he growled and with that he entered her and continued well into the evening pleasuring one another.


	29. It creeps in when you least expect it

“We should watch it in my room.” Daria suggested cautiously once they’d emerged from her room.  
“Oh, now you get shy?” Trent teased looking back at her from where he was tugging her into the main room after having finally convinced her that her nightshirt and no pajama bottoms were fine. “Your player isn’t even hooked up yet and this TV is bigger. ‘Sides, no one’s here,” he added and put the video in.  
“Okay. I’ll get us something to drink. You hungry?”  
“Ravenous!” he declared encircling her in his arms and kissing her lightly.   
She was unable to suppress the giggle that escaped her and didn’t bother with a feigned trying to escape his arms. Why bother? She was absolutely ensconced in their relationship and she loved it….. And sometimes it really scared her, but now- right now, she was happy and fulfilled in ways that she never thought possible.  
Oh my god….. I’m in love with him. I know that I love him and he loves me, but I’m ‘in love’ with him. Like love, love.  
“You okay?” he asked seeing her become so still.  
“Ah- yeah. I just…..” she stared up into his dark eyes trying to steady herself from what felt like a jolting revelation.  
“What?”  
“I’m in love with you,” she whispered and hurried off to the kitchen where she made busy work of getting them something to eat and drink. She felt his hands on her shoulders and she leaned back against his chest.  
His heart is racing. Me and my big mouth.  
“Please don’t feel the need to say the same thing to me. I don’t want any patented responses designed to manufacture a cookie cutter image of the so called magic moment between two people. Just let it be what it was, a moment of weakness brought on by the euphoria of us and some plaguing need to be honest.”  
She felt the weight of his chin on her forehead and his hands slide down her arms to encircle her waist.  
“You done?”  
“…..huh?”  
“Are you done talking so that I have a chance to respond?” At her silence, he continued. “You say that you’re in love with me and that’s more than I could have ever hoped for from you. Us- that’s a concept that I thought would be an elusive dream, never to be experienced in this life, but through some miracle you deemed me worthy of being with you….. you fascinate me- push me to be more- you make me feel like I can do anything if I want to, but more than that there’s this feeling that I get just from knowing that you’re mine and I’m yours. It’s so peaceful, but exciting at the same time. I’m probably not saying all of this right anyway. It just boils down to a simple truth; I’m in love with you.”  
They stayed that way for a few moments before she slowly turned to face him In his eyes she saw a truth above all truths and made sure to mentally snapshot this moment so that whenever she would have doubts, it would serve as her touchstone for what was true.   
“I sure know how to make a magic moment, don’t I?” she joked.  
He gently traced the outline of her cheekbone.  
“You sure do.”  
They gathered the food and drinks on a nearby tray and took them to the main room.

 

Later…..  
“I’m just suggesting that maybe you shouldn’t be in such a hurry to pick up a bottle. We can talk-“   
“Just stop!” Jesse yelled at her; then in a more subdued tone. “I know that you’re trying to help, but just leave me alone for a while.”  
Shalah stopped short when Jesse had swung around with his demand for her to back off. She had followed him to the bar after his planned evening with Jane had turned into a huge bust. He had looked so hurt before and she knew that he would be particularly vulnerable to certain vices that, given his frame of mind, could prove to be detrimental to him in the long run. Seeing how he looked at that glass of alcohol- the hunger to douse out the pain would turn into a need for the juice and that was a path that she prayed to never see anyone take again. Shalah watched as Jesse went into Jane’s room and slammed the door behind himself.  
“Everything okay?” Daria’s concerned voice asked from the sofa where she and Trent were sitting.  
Shalah turned to the couple that she hadn’t even realized was there.   
“Jesse is- I think I just stepped on his toes about his personal stuff. I was tryin’ to help, but- What are you guys watching?” her eyes flicked back to the frozen image on the screen of some couple in a position that seemed almost impossible to be in, except they were.”  
“Nothing,” Daria answered quickly while Trent turned the screen off before she could make out anything else. “So what happened with Jesse?”  
“I don’t-“  
“Nothing happened,” Jesse replied coming from the room that had felt more like a prison in the few moments that he’d been in there, than the jail cell that he’d spent one drunken night in. “Shalah just doesn’t believe that I can handle myself, so she’d appointed herself as my designated driver for tonight. Right Sha Sha?” Jesse clamped a hand on her shoulder. Shalah rolled her eyes and gave a tight smile. Jesse tugged her along back out the door where he turned to speak to her in the hall.  
“Jesse they are your friends. They can help.”  
“Help with what? There is nothing to do. I’m all good. I’ll just go to the bar, now that I have my wallet,” he waived the wallet that he had retrieved, “and get my drink on. I’ll deal with the monster headache in the morning and move on like any other man would do.”  
Shalah could only follow him and hope that she could be of some help.

 

Inside…..  
“Do you think she saw anything?” Daria had asked when Shalah and Jesse had left.  
“Nah, I turned the tv off.  
“What do you think that was with Jesse?”  
“I was just wondering the same thing,” Trent was worried about the path that he saw his friend going down. “He would normally tell me or at least Jane would figure it out and between the two of us, we could figure something out, but she’s been all secretive about this guy that she’s seeing so…..”  
“Try talking to him on the ride home tomorrow.” Daria touched his arm gently.  
“I will…..” Trent worried about his longtime friend. It wasn’t like Jesse to withdraw from him and Jane. They were family and he had been so on point with the changes in the band. Maybe this was just a skirmish; everyone had ups and downs didn’t they?


	30. V Chat chatter

“Jesse’s not coming,” Trent told Daria on their video chat.  
“Why not? Dad said that all of The Mystic could come.”  
It’s The Spiral, but The Mystic could be a cool female companion group, that is if Jane could hold a tune, but art is her thing and she excels at it.  
“He said that he wanted to be with his mom, but…..well- he’s my best friend and I know something is wrong and he just won’t tell me what it is.”  
“What can I do to help?”  
Trent sighed.   
“Nothing…..I’m gonna try and talk to him again. It can’t be that girl though right? All of that happened before Thanksgiving and he seemed okay at Thanksgiving, but he seemed to go back into this…..funk after that.”  
“Well, everyone takes their own time, with matters of the heart.” Daria tried to reassure him. “Just let him know that you’re there for him.”  
I’m going soft…..  
She’s going soft…..  
“Of course,” she said with a slow smile, “there’s always electro shock therapy, although I don’t think that would help his abilities on the guitar any.”   
That’s my girl…..  
“It might help me with mine though,” Trent chuckled accompanied by a lighter version of his old cough that had all but disappeared.  
“You’re doing great. Your music has always been your strength. You just had to work on your lyrics a bit.”  
“Work in continual progress, plus Jesse has been doing some writing too and that has been really cool.”  
“Maybe music or can be a form of therapy for him too, you know since it has always helped you.”  
“Seems like it is. The stuff that he has let me see is filled with so much pain though….. I’m supposed to be his best friend. I feel like I should do more.” He dropped his head in his hands out of frustration.  
“Sometimes just being there helps….. I don’t condone what I am about to say, but…..” he looked up from where he’d been running his hand through his hair in exasperation, “maybe you should go and get a pack of beer and let him vent it all out through the alcohol?”  
Trent had given a lopsided smile. He’d had similar thoughts, but had dismissed them. He wasn’t fond of drinking like that- anymore, and found that it rarely solved anything.  
“Are you telling me that you are giving me a free pass to get trashed?” he teased.  
She squirmed a bit uncomfortable thinking about all the stories that she’d overheard about the perils of indulging too much from her classmates.   
“…..I just think that you should help Jesse however you can, but be as responsible as possible.” She added quickly. “Oh, yeah; you never told me what that guy wanted after your last gig here.”  
“Nothing to tell really. He was on the phone and had to end up leaving before he even said anything. Probably yanking my chain anyway.”  
“Well did you give him your number?”  
“Yeah…..”  
“Hey,” she waited until he looked back at her again, “someone is going to recognize how talented you guys are and then you’re going to shine, just wait and see.”  
“What happened to the misanthropic girl that I fell in love with?”  
“I have her on reserve for everyone else,” she smirked at him.   
“So how are your classes and work going?”  
“Classes are still good and work is actually steady. I actually have a following on my blog too. So all in all, it is pretty good.”  
“I went online and looked at your stuff- very insightful,” he admitted and watched her as she unsuccessfully tried to hide how she beamed with pride over his praise. “You really have a way with words.”  
“Thanks,” she said bashfully tucking her hair behind her ears. “I finished the first of my companion piece to my Melanie Powers series, I’m thinking of calling it The Malefactor.”   
“Nice, it’s to the point.”  
“I could email it to you if you want to read it,” she offered in her guarded noncommittal tone.   
“I would be honored to read your work.” He stated truthfully.  
Truth be told, she had wanted to get his feedback for a while, but had shied away from it in light of everything that had been going on, especially with her mother.  
“I’ll send it tonight.”  
“Cool, I should go. I’m helping Jesse’s mom with her catering.”  
“Okay, I’ll catch you later.”  
“Me too,” he leaned to flip the switch off, “love you.”  
“Love you too.”  
They switched off their respective ends for the evening.


	31. Christmas with the Morgendorffers

“Hi everybody,” Quinn said entering the Morgendorffer residence wearing a fitted winter white sweater with matching slacks, boots, purse, and hat, revealed after she had removed the muted gold swing coat. The outfit only served to emphasize the perfectly coiffed red waves of her hair that hung just past her shoulders, as well as, the beautiful features of her face that she had done an excellent job of emphasizing with minimizing her makeup and wearing lip plumping coral colored gloss. “This is Paul.”  
The well-dressed man standing beside her smiled at the room full of people. Helen was the first to step forward with a hand extended.  
“Hello Paul, I’m Quinn’s mother Helen.” She then proceeded to introduce Paul to everyone else there, making sure that she introduced Trent as Daria’s friend, something that Quinn noticed with agitation. Everyone resumed their casual conversations with Jake including Paul in the culinary cuisine that he and Trent had been engrossed in. Quinn had tried to bee line it to Jane or Daria, but Helen had immediately pulled her aside to have a word with her. Quinn had expected it, but not so soon. She had thought that her mother would be too involved in Daria’s love life to be concerned about hers. “This is a big step for you,” Helen stated glancing in Paul’s direction. “How serious are you?”  
Quinn wasn’t sure how she should answer that. On the one hand she felt like she could be straight forward with her mother, but on the other hand she didn’t want to divulge any grand declarations to her mother and risk Helen shredding through everything that was of value to her all in the name of it being for her own protection like she did Daria.  
“Helen,” Jake interrupted pulling his wife to the side to have a word with her about lightening up, since it was a party.  
“I’ll just let you two have a minute,” Quinn said as she headed to Daria.  
“You sure did make your escape,” Daria observed as Quinn expelled a breath once she’d made it to her side.  
“Yeah, mom was getting way too intense, way too fast.”  
Welcome to my world.  
“Mmm…..”  
“Any thaw with you and her?” Quinn already knew the answer before she’d asked the question; the brief shake in her sister’s head only served as confirmation. Daria and her mother both were wearing the same expressions of unrelenting stubbornness.   
“Tell me about Paul,” Daria suggested giving the man a once over to where he was standing now alone since Trent had stepped out to take a call.  
“He’s this really awesome designer and I am helping him put his collection together. We met when he spilled his coffee on my brand new T Burch boots; needless to say that I was furious, but he apologized and I had calmed down once I realized that he had also managed to practically ruin some of his sketches. Those sketches were good and I told him that he needed to invest in a water proof carrier for such things and that’s where it all began.” She finished talking with a dreamy expression on her face as she allowed her eyes to rest on Paul again.   
Do I look like that when I talk about Trent? Sheesh…..  
“Sounds nice.” Daria couldn’t help but look at Trent and remember how they’d eventually let their feelings for one another be known.  
“Well look at you two gals over here studying the men folk over there,” Jane said with a playful smile.  
They both rolled their eyes before Daria spoke.  
“What happened to Jesse? I thought that you were going to go get him.”  
“He…..couldn’t make it,” Daria could see the cloud pass over her friends face before it was pushed aside. “So, Quinn….. What’s the deal with you and Paul over there?”  
“We’re a couple,” she said with proud confidence.  
“A couple of what?” Jane quipped playfully.  
“Hey Daria, can I talk to you for a sec?” Trent interrupted the small group of young ladies and took Daria’s hand and led her outside, leaving questioning looks on Quinn and Janes faces as he did so.

Once they were outside, Trent had pulled Daria into his arms in an excited hug swinging her around and Daria had clung to him with this unexpected show of exuberance. After a moment he stopped, but still held her looking at her now flushed face in the frosty air.  
Maybe I should have gotten her jacket.  
“Trent, what is it?”  
“…..We got signed,” he said in almost a whisper of incredulous disbelief.   
“That’s so great,” she breathed feeling his excitement.  
“That was the guy from the club. He’s with this up and coming company and they want us to go on tour as an opener for this guy out of Canada that has been doing his music underground style and if that goes well, we’ll get our own opening act for another tour. They want us in the studio Monday morning to nail out details, but there is a contract and we are getting paid.” He hugged her again and she hugged him feeling the excitement.   
“I should get you back inside,” he rubbed her arms to warm her up before trying to lead her back inside. She stopped at the door and turned back to him.  
“I am so proud of you. Your dedication and hard work is paying off. You’re a good man Trent.”  
He steered her back inside feeling a bit choked up with her words and the realization that this great news for The Spiral would be taking him away from Daria. Dinner proceeded with everyone learning more about Barry and how integral Quinn had become in putting together this line that he was debuting. Every time he spoke he would look at Quinn and she would give a demure blush; it was clear to everyone there that they were more than a little smitten with one another. Jane had tried to ask Daria what the scene outside was about, but hadn’t the chance. So after dinner they all retired to the family room, sitting in various areas, but generally talking as a group.  
“So when will you be showing?” Helen had directed her question to Paul.  
“We’re doing a Valentine’s Day runway with non-traditional themes,” Paul explained. “It was Quinn’s idea. She comes up with tons of stuff and somehow strings them all together.”  
Conversations continued to flow and everyone seemed to be in good holiday cheer. Jake noticed the intense looks between his eldest and Trent even when they were engaged in whatever conversation was prevalent at the moment. He had really hoped that Helen would see how very good Trent and Daria were for each other. They each drew out the better qualities in each other and that was what any good couple did in essence. Helen had spent the evening focusing on Quinn and Paul and had used every opportunity to point out how impressive Paul and Quinn were with their plans and laying foundations for something steady. The progress that he had hoped for seemed to be slipping away. To their credit, he thought with a smile to himself, Daria and Trent had not gone on the offensive, instead opting to let it roll off of them. He had even heard Trent tell Jane to just let it go when she had gotten a whiff of what Helen was doing.   
“Hey kiddo,” Jake had approached Daria when he saw her escape to the kitchen.   
“Dinner was really good dad…..and thanks for…..trying,” Daria said looking past her father’s shoulder and into the room where everyone was still talking.   
He shrugged and moved to stand beside her at the sink and both looked out into the evening sky as they spoke.  
“She means well,” Jake stated.  
“I don’t remember her ever having one negative thing to say about anyone that Quinn dated and she spent the entire evening gushing over Quinn and Paul- super couple.”  
“Mmm…..”  
“I know it’s not Quinn’s fault, but she- they have always had a good understanding with one another and with me- well she only wants to control everything that I do. It’s okay though; everyone is entitled to their opinions, I just don’t have to agree with them.” She seemed to conclude more to herself than him.   
Jake frowned at the resignation in her voice.  
“Don’t be so quick to accept that your mother will always feel this way. I know that she will get past whatever it is and come around.” He stated with more bravado than he felt.  
You’ll always be optimistic when it comes to her dad and that’s great….. I’m glad that you love mom like that.  
“Hey you two moved the party in here,” Trent’s voice came from behind them. “Did you tell your dad?” he asked her once they’d turned towards him.   
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted to yet.”  
“Come on you two, tell me,” Jake said with anxious anticipation.  
“The Spiral got an offer and it looks like we go on tour mid-January,” Trent said proudly.  
“That’s great Trent,” Jake shook his hand proudly. “How long of a tour?”  
“Six months. I just got the call tonight and I wanted to tell the rest of the guys in person, as soon as I left here.”  
“Are you kidding me? Get out of here, go spread the good word, but drive carefully okay.” Jake beamed.  
“Thanks Mr- Jake,” he corrected when Jake gave him a stern look. He looked back at Daria.   
“I’ll be by later,” she said before he could say anything and with that he was gone.  
“That’s really good news for Trent and the Spiral,” Jake said once the door was shut.  
“What’s really good news?” Helen asked from behind them. “And where’s Trent run off to?”  
“He’s gone mom, just like you wanted.” Daria stated and marched out of the room past her mother and up the stairs, hoping for the safety of her old room.  
What the hell? I am happy for Trent- happy for The Spiral, they have really stepped up their game and have been working hard. I guess all those old fears and insecurities were bound to bubble to the surface.   
There was a knocking at the door and then Jane’s voice.  
“Everything okay Amiga?”  
“Yeah, you looked upset. What happened?” Quinn’s voice came through.   
“You can come in,” Daria said dryly and sat from where she’d flopped down face first on the bed.  
They both entered the room and sat on each side of her.  
“So give it to me straight, how dramatic was my little exit?” Daria asked.  
“On a scale of one to ten, I would say an eight for anyone else, but you get a ten for such uncharacteristic display,” Jane replied immediately to which Daria groaned.  
“So what happened?” Quinn asked cautiously.  
“Actually really good news,” Daria sat up straighter and told them as much as she knew about The Spirals upcoming tour and what it could mean for them.  
“So what’s with the stomping off?” Quinn asked confused.  
“I guess when mom came in just after we told dad…..it felt like she was kind of getting her way and keeping us apart. Don’t get me wrong, I am so proud of Trent, but it just feels like she’d be gloating or something.”  
“I get it…..bittersweet and stuff.” Quinn mused.  
“Or something,” Daria agreed.  
“Hey,” Jane spoke in a ‘light dawning on her’ way and proceeded to point to each person in reference as she spoke, “my brother, your boyfriend in law, and your boyfriend just got signed to go on tour and that is something that he, Jesse, Nick, and Max have dreamed of since forever. So can we just take a beat here and go crazy excited for them?”   
“You’re right,” Daria agreed feeling a bit selfish for her outburst.  
“-oh, I get what you’re saying, but I think the good outweighs the bad here.” Jane amended knowing that her friend would needlessly beat herself up over a perfectly normal response- well normal for her. “So let’s go celebrate with the guys. Dinner here is pretty much over anyway over…..right?”  
“Okay, I’m in.” Daria said allowing her love for Trent and Jane’s enthusiasm to wash over her a bit.”  
“Me, too,” Quinn piped up quickly.  
“You think Paul can handle an evening with us rif raf?” Daria asked half joking.  
“He’s no snob,” she said proudly.  
This will also let you guys get to know him too.  
“Well let’s say good night to your parental units and be on the way then,” Jane suggested to which they all agreed.


	32. A Toast to The Spiral

“To The Spiral,” Jane announced loudly to everyone. The table consisted of Trent sitting on her right, with a Daria looking more at ease sitting in his lap than she would have ever thought possible, next to them were Quinn and Paul and on to Max and Nick with Stacy and Jesse sat next to her. Everyone supplied a round of ‘Here, here’s’ in merry agreement and drank up.   
“So what are you guys gonna do once the world gets a whiff of just how awesome you are?” Stacey asked her boyfriend over the noise of the club.  
He smiled at her and whispered something in her ear that made her blush and the rest of the group weren’t privy to.  
“Alright everybody, let’s get out there and cut a rug,” Max suggested taking Stacey’s hand and heading for the floor. Everyone followed suit with Quinn and Paul pairing up, Nick and one of the regulars, Jesse and Jane, and Trent with Daria. The moderate beat of the music, with drinks flowing all aided in the feeling of good cheer of the season and celebrating the impending success of The Spiral. The group had a good time of celebrating with old friends and getting to know the dynamics of new relationships and new friends, before finding themselves in the parking lot.   
“Does everyone have ride?” Trent asked with his arm around Daria and he looked at everyone and trying to memorize this evening.  
“Paul and I are taking Max and Stacy,” Quinn answered happily.  
“I’m riding with-” Nick fished around for a name to the lavender colored hair girl that he was with.  
“Josey,” she answered around a giggle.  
“Yeah, what she said,” he took another drink of his beer. Trent and Jesse traded looks to which Jesse nodded.  
“I’ll get ‘em home safe,” Jesse said tersely.  
“You can’t,” Jane said grabbing his arm as she remembered earlier, “I know that wasn’t just coffee in that cup.” She stated not breaking the stare that he was giving her.  
“Shit,” he looked at Trent, “she’s right, I had a little more than usual, so…..”  
“Okay, then we will take the T2 and drop everyone else off.” He stated looking to Daria for some understanding and grateful that she gave him a reassuring squeeze around the waist.  
Everyone piled into their respective rides and parted ways for the evening.  
“Hope you don’t mind this,” Trent gestured to the dozing members in the back of T2.  
“Not at all,” Daria said to him quietly. After her mini melt down at home, she had enjoyed losing herself in the celebration of friends and family.  
This is what it’s all about. He is so happy and everyone is just being themselves….for better or worse.  
“What was with Jane and Jesse tonight? They seemed……different.” Daria spoke in hushed tones so as not to wake the slumbering passengers in back. At Jane's insistence, they had dropped her off first and now they were left with Jesse, Nick, and Josie- the last, had produced her addressed via her drivers license.  
"Not sure….." Trent had his suspicions, but was reluctant to divulge them without talking to Jesse first. "Later," he glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure that everyone was still zonked out. "Quinn and Paul seem to be happy together."  
"Yeah they do. I'm glad that she's found someone that she feels comfortable enough to be herself around." Daria said thoughtfully.  
"That's a rare thing to have," he agreed. They stopped and he proceeded to help Nick get Josie into her apartment.  
"Is he good to her?" Jesse's voice came from the back of the van. At first Daria wasn't sure if he was just rambling or if he were talking to her. "Demartino…..is he good to her?"  
"Uh- yeah. She seems happy." Daria answered turning to where he sat in the shadows of the van in back. "Is this why you've been so-"  
"Nick is staying with her tonight," Trent said getting back in the van. He looked from Daria to Jesse. "What's going on?"  
"Later," Daria said turning around and getting repositioned back in her seat.  
They went on to get Jesse back home before heading back to the Lane household where they now sat in the driveway. They undid their seatbelts and faced each other in the darkness of the van.  
"So what do you think is going on with Jesse and Jane?" Daria asked after a few moments of silence.  
"First things first," Trent drew her to him in a soft kiss. They stayed close after the kiss ended with the sides of their faces almost touching. "I've been wanting to do that all night."  
"So why didn't you?"  
"Thought it best to keep things low key," he shrugged, but she knew that he didn't want to do anything that her mother might find offensive.  
You shouldn't have to stop being who you are for her- or anyone.  
"Thank you," she whispered.  
"For what?" his low murmur matched hers.  
"Oh…..for being you, the wonderful boyfriend that you are."  
"Oh, yeah?" he pulled her into his lap easily. "Maybe that's just a cover."  
"Really? A cover for what?" she was amused by the playfulness between them, for she never really thought that it was possible for her. In truth, the most that she had ever hoped for was shared interests and a mutual understanding of trading snarky comments on whatever crossed the paths of whomever she was with and the closest that she had come with that had been with Ted. So this kind of closeness was new to her and she found it fascinating.  
"A cover for all of the tantalizing things that I want share with you." His breath fanned the side of her face and ear as he studied her profile. His arms still held her, but had not moved from their position of around her shoulders and waist respectively.  
How can the mere sound of his voice make me feel like we are in the most intimate of positions?  
"Put up or shut up Lane." She challenged lightly. In response, he opened the door and picked her up, throwing her unceremoniously over his shoulder, kicked the door shut, and took her into the house. "Trent, you're gonna drop me," she hissed praying that Jane wouldn't come from her room and catch this show.  
"I'm just putting up," he replied and she could feel the smug smirk in the dark. "Now, come on woman." He smacked her bottom with the palm of his hand and proceeded on to his room.  
Their interplay seemed somehow more enchanted that night. Perhaps it was their standing in silent union against Helen's tyrannical objections, or maybe it was The Spiral's impending success, which was now much more visible on the horizon than ever, regardless, their time that night was marked with the bittersweet knowledge that he would soon be going on tour and she would be returning to school. They knew that they would face the difficulties of a long distance relationship, among other things that were bound to come up, but by mutual agreement to talk things out, they felt that they could overcome anything thrown their way…...together.


	33. Helen's Perspective

Epilogue, of sorts…..  
“Daria this whole you and Trent thing simply has to stop and now that he is gone you can focus on your studies more.” Helen announced entering the kitchen and seeing her eldest at the table having coffee with Jake.  
“It’s morning dear-” Jake started, but Helen cut him off.  
“I know exactly what time it is and it is high time that she got her head out of the clouds and you,” she pointed at Jake, “need to stop feeding into the silly fantasy that she’s been nursing.” She turned back to where Daria sat looking at her with eyes so like her fathers.  
Best to get this out of the way before she returns to school.  
“Just because you’ve done what you always do and got your father on your side-“  
“Really mom? Who did I turn to when I made such a huge mistake with Tom? YOU! Not dad, you.” Daria had jumped up almost knocking her chair over, but Jake had caught it. She fought to calm herself not wanting to give in to the anger that had immediately flared up at Helen barging in an intruding on this quiet time with what she felt were unsubstantiated claims and unreasonable summations about a relationship that she hadn’t even taken the time to ask about, let alone get to know.   
“Ladies,” Jake’s voice held a firm tone, “why don’t we sit and talk.”  
The two both looked at him with the same fierceness in their eyes, but both complied. Daria reseated herself adjacent to her father and Helen took the seat across from her daughter.  
“Okay, now what exactly is your problem with Daria seeing Trent?” Jake asked Helen in as calming a voice as he could.  
Helen’s eyes flicked to her husband and then back to Daria when she spoke.  
“I want to say first that I have no problem with Trent personally; I actually like him. He seems to be a nice young man. My issues with him and you as a couple is very simple. I don’t want him to hurt you. He grew up with a different set of values than the ones that we have tried to instill in you and your sister. He takes things at his own leisure and has a very blasé way of life. He could be happy with a million dollars or just as happy with fifty cents to his name.” She held up a hand to stave off whatever her daughter was going to say and continued. “I know that you think that it’s sweet and endearing, idyllic even…..believe me I understand the appeal, but look further into your future. You’ll wake up one day and realize that you spent your life chasing the allure of an imagery of someone that you never really knew. He has no structure for you to cling to and whether or not you admit it, you need and want structure. He still lives in his parent’s house with no visible means of supporting himself. What is he going to do when or if you two become serious and have a family of your own?”  
“Everything that you just said is personal, so yeah, it is personal. Trent and I are a couple, so you’re gonna just have to deal with it. He did grow up in a different kind of household, where they valued creativity and individuality, but that doesn’t mean that there was any shortage of love there. You are right when you say that he is nice, because he is the best person that I know and when you attack him, you attack me.” She watched to see if anything that she was saying had sunk in before continuing. “And we are serious mom. He and I have worked through…..a lot of stuff, largely my own, to get to where we are now and I’m glad for it. I think that it has made us a stronger couple.”  
“Daria…..” Helen just looked at her daughter. How had she missed it? Daria had grown, not just gotten older, but actually grown. This conversation was proof of it. She was actually telling her- both parents about someone that she cared for without a bribe or having been found out and forced to admit to it. She remembered how difficult it had been getting information from Daria about the few past relationships that she’d had. “…..I just don’t want you to wake up one morning with regrets.”  
Daria bit her bottom lip. There was nothing else she felt that she could say. It was up to Helen how things progressed from here.  
“I have to go.” She got up from the table and made to leave, but Helen stopped her.  
“I do know that it’s your life…..but you’re my little girl. I respect that you have your own opinions and values and I will try and not be so coarse about your relationship with Trent.” Helen offered levelly.   
“Thanks mom.” Daria mumbled quickly before shooting her father a look and taking leave of the room.  
The couple sat in silence for a few minutes before Jake decided to speak.  
“Thanks for meeting her halfway.”  
“You don’t have to thank me for talking to our daughter,” she said quietly.  
“The things that you spoke of…..do you still harbor regrets?” Jake remembered how they’d finally hashed things out in therapy and both had said things that hurt the other initially, but through hard work and perseverance, they found that the problems had more to do with them individually and that made them closer as a couple once they had realized it.   
“I don’t want them to be where I was at during that awful session with Dr. Canton.” Her eyes held something that he hadn’t seen in quite some time- true emotion. As a lawyer, her skills at being able to completely mask any emotion in the courtroom had always worked in her favor, especially during negotiations, and that skill carried over into her private life where her children often emulated sometimes to an unsettling degree she found during their teenage years.  
“Where we were at,” Jake corrected her gently and came to kneel before his wife as, finally, some understanding of her rigid stance came forth. “We’re a team as well as individuals, remember?”  
She nodded, closing her eyes.   
“She’ll be fine no matter what happens- she’s your daughter.” Jake squeezed his wife’s hands lightly. She looked through less worried eyes at him.  
“She’s a Morgendorffer,” Helen agreed with a weak smile.  
“Yeah, she is,” Jake kissed his wife and held her.


	34. Thanks from the Author

I just want to say to everyone that has read this: Thanks You so very much. I had a lot of fun writing it and I hope that you enjoyed the ride. I don’t know if anyone cares, but my ‘Jane’ story is sort of a companion piece to this one and I hope to soon be starting another story that chronicles The Spiral’s tour and relationships called: “On The Road”. So this is the technical end of this story and I know that it may seem like there are loose ends, but isn’t life just full of them? And who has everything all ship shape anyway? Keeps it more real for me, but anyway thanks again and remember to give a honest review, they are always appreciated.


End file.
